Start of a New Journey
by constantchanger1000
Summary: Starts out the night after Sheena talks to Lloyd in Heimdall, if they stayed two nights there. Actual game dialogue used in later chapters so if you don't like spoilers don't read this. I'm not great at summaries, Shelloyd pairing. Possible Zellette.
1. Chapter 1

I do not own Tales of Symphonia in any way shape or form

Chapter 1

The night was moonless and only the twinkling of stars now lit the ground, the elven city of Heimdall was at rest, with the only noise being the occasional soft bark from a dog or sounds of something moving in the surrounding Ymir Forest.

Lloyd Irving couldn't sleep he hadn't been able to in two days. Now he stood on the arched wooden bridge over the small river in Heimdall, listening to the sounds of the night and thinking too many things, for the second night in a row, just that day he had fought his father, won, and then had to watch as his father nearly killed himself to release the seal on the King of Summon Spirits. Kratos Aurion now rested in the village elder's home having survived with the help of Raine and Yuan who had appeared quite suddenly after Kratos released the seal, then after facing Origin, Sheena had made the pact and Lloyd had been told that now with only one thing left to do he would soon be able to wield the Eternal Sword. All of the sudden his mind wandered to something that caught him off guard as it seemed he had no control over it, Sheena the indigo clad ninja summoner since his night at Flanoir he and Sheena had become closer and last night she had surprised him during the night, as again he couldn't sleep, she had come to his room and they had walked next to the river and talked about his fight with Kratos and the future after that, and he had promised to take her along when he went to destroy the rest of the exspheres, but now he started thinking about something that he thought he never would 'did he love Sheena?' He shook his head quickly to try and clear his thoughts _'No I can't love Sheena, she's just a great friend, sure she's nice and she sure knows how to cheer someone up when they need it, and she's beautiful…' _he stopped _'she is beautiful.'_

Now he was confusing himself he was about to head back to his room when a voice stopped him "Hey are you up again? You know I didn't think you were supposed to still be nervous." He looked over to see the very person that was just working his brain, Sheena Fujibayashi, standing on the land next to the bridge leaning forward with her hands resting on the two railings of the bridge. He smiled, for once she wasn't wearing her indigo kimono or the dull pink ribbon he was so used to seeing her in, and she had let her dark violet hair down, where it rested just past her shoulders, she wore a dark forest green robe, no doubt borrowed from the elves, wrapped loosely around her, underneath she had a sky blue t-shirt and a pair of indigo shorts. She smiled back at him and walked up to stand next to him "So what's up?" she said quickly, looking up at him. He didn't look over at her but leaned forward and let out a long sigh. Sheena still looked at the side of his head waiting for him to face her "Sheesh Lloyd," she said "I thought I knew you pretty good, but that one has me confused."

Now he chuckled shortly and turned around leaning his back against the railing, turning to look at her "Don't worry Sheena, you still know me just as good as anyone but I don't know what one meant either. I wish someone could help me figure that out."

Sheena now leaned out over the bridge looking at the perfectly clear water which now nearly looked like a mirror "Well, you do have me."

Lloyd turned to join her in looking at the water for a few seconds, and then grinned "Yeah your right, I do, and everyone else too, the only thing is I do wish we could have the chance for a rest, it seems that we haven't had a chance to rest at all since we very first got to Tethe'alla."

Sheena nodded slowly "Yeah it has been pretty hectic, and anytime we have had a night to sleep not outside we've always had something or someone to worry about."

Lloyd nodded and let out another long sigh "Well maybe it will be over in the next couple days."

"We can only hope," Sheena replied then looked over again at him "well keeping ourselves up probably won't help on the day that we do face Mithos, you and I better get back to bed." She turned and waited for him, he slowly walked over to her and as they walked back she held onto his arm and rested her head on his shoulder. He felt like he was walking mechanically the whole way back and if not for his exhaustion he was sure his heart would've been able to break his ribs for how hard it would have been pounding.

They walked back to the small inn and he walked Sheena to the door of the girls room where she gave him a last smiled and walked into the room shutting the door quietly. Lloyd walked back to the room where the other men slept and after lying down in bed, stayed awake for almost an hour thinking only one thing _'do I love Sheena?'_

The next morning he woke up to find the room empty except for Genis, who was bouncing his Kendama around leaning his head on a hand. Lloyd sat up and stretched and yawned widely, before looking over at Genis "Where's the rest of the group?"

Genis sighed and caught the Kendama ball as it came back "They're outside in front of the elder's house Raine made me wait, she always wants to be the one to listen and then explain to me after it's over."

Lloyd quickly got up and belted on his two swords and reached out a hand to pull Genis off the bed and walk out of the room "I got your back for this one Genis," Lloyd said as they walked out of the inn, they found the group quickly outside the elder's house, Raine, Collette and Sheena were having a quiet conversation, Presea was sitting on a log nearby with Regal right next to her both solemn as usual and Zelos was leaning up against the elder's house watching the three girls talking, Kratos was there as well standing off to one side, but Yuan had disappeared yet again.

As Lloyd and Genis walked up Raine frowned and looked like she would say something but Lloyd beat her to it "I'm vouching for him Professor, doesn't even look like there really is a conversation going on anyway," he said "Good morning Collette, good morning Sheena," he said walking past the two they both turned and said "good morning" quickly then went back to their conversation which was now whispers and giggles.

After Lloyd stopped the Professor, Genis walked up with a rather triumphant grin on his face, Raine smacked him on the back of the head but didn't say anything. A few minutes later Lloyd made himself heard to the group "Okay guys, yesterday went well where to now?"

The rest of the group gathered round and Raine spoke up "first off we need someone to change key crests so Lloyd can use the two special exspheres from Origin."

Lloyd nodded "Well Altessa lost his equipment in the attack awhile ago otherwise he could do it, it looks like we're back to Iselia again."

Now Sheena spoke up "after that we can go to Derris-Kharlan and finally finish this, Mithos doesn't know what he's gotten himself into," she said as her cards materialized in her hands.

Lloyd clenched a fist "Yeah, lets get to dad's fast, I'm starting to get excited."

Kratos stepped forward then "I'd like to ask if I could travel with you to Dirk's home, I will leave when we are done there but I do wish to accompany you there, not to mention you will need my help to create the special key crests."

The others looked over at Lloyd but he only shrugged "He is right, yeah you can come along, are you going to need to ride on one of the Rheiards?"

Kratos shook his head at this "No I'll be able to keep up with you just with my wings, but I'll need to be in contact with one of the Rheiards before you go into the gateway, or I'll get left behind."

Lloyd nodded "all fine with me, lets move out." The group began to walk towards the edge of the forest where the Rheiards had been hidden but before they even reached the bridge an earthquake of incredible magnitude cam from nowhere, throwing the entire group to the ground, the quake didn't lessen in strength and Lloyd braced himself against the ground and rose to a crouching position very slowly, Raine was clutching her staff staying upright, barely, Presea, Collette and Genis were all still on the ground and Regal, Sheena, and Kratos were slowly rising to their feet. "Kratos, what's going on? I thought the earthquakes would be over," Lloyd shouted over the noise.

Kratos raised his head and shouted back "Mithos must've found out we have gotten Origin, I have a feeling we'll be hearing from him very soon." Just as he spoke the quake slowed down a tiny fraction and the voice of Mithos echoed deafeningly out of nowhere "You think you have a chance to beat me? You have no chance, soon you won't even matter anymore!" he laughed maniacally and his voice faded and the earthquake returned with renewed fury, knocking everyone back to the ground, then all of the sudden it stopped. Lloyd looked around quickly from the ground seeing everyone still on the ground, he slowly rose to a kneeling position, and then to his feet, everyone else was standing now as well. Lloyd looked up into the sky and said "I know this sounds weird, but this can't be it, that earthquake was meant to do something," his confusion was gone in the next five seconds as a huge, crunching and breaking sound filled the area.

Collette was the first to see it "look everyone, the Tower of Salvation it's…" her mouth hung open, dumbstruck as she pointed towards the Tower, as the group watched enormous cracks ran down the length of the tower and soon they saw the chunks from the very top falling all the way down, Kratos was the first to recover he began to run towards the forest, the elves were already moving as well as the rest of the group came back to their senses they ran after Kratos who shouted before sprouting his wings and jumping into the air "Use the Rheiards anyway, try to avoid the large chunks this will be dangerous, but its better than the ground," Lloyd nodded and as they reached the four Rheiards they went into their groups of two, Lloyd and Genis, Raine and Sheena, Zelos and Collette, and Regal and Presea. The larger chunks had just begun to fall off as the Rheiards slowly lifted off the ground, the smaller ones were just starting to fall on the city as they made it away.

It took only a few seconds before the Rheiards began to swerve and dip avoiding the large pieces as they rained down, soon it felt like flying through a city, dodging constantly now very high in the air. Lloyd and Genis rode at the back of the group with the rest flying out in front, spread out to avoid bumping into each other. Genis had been watching behind him the whole time telling him when to dodge, suddenly Genis spoke up again, fear thick in his voice "Um…Lloyd?"

Lloyd turned his head slightly to look back "What is—holy crap," he had turned to see a piece of the tower the size of a large building fall off and was heading towards them "Genis right now you have to destroy that, if we just let if all it will kill the elves still in the forest, making it into smaller pieces gives them a better chance, I don't care what you use just blow it into as many pieces as you can."

Genis nodded quickly and grabbed his Kendama, moving his hands and muttering an incantation, and then he shouted as loud as he could pointing the Kendama at the huge piece of stone "EXPLOSION!"

There was a split second of silence then a fireball erupted from inside the stone blowing the stone upward and outward, Lloyd yelled to the others who had turned to see it "Get ready to move fast guys!" The Rheiards swerved, spun and moved in all different directions for the next thirty seconds as the smaller pieces rained down, it seemed they had made it out, but then one piece struck the edge of Raine and Sheena's Rheiard, it faltered and looked like it might go down as Raine struggled to keep it in the air, after one jerk Sheena lost her balance and fell from the Rheiard. It seemed to move in slow motion to Lloyd as she fell, but then everything was back to high speed as her feet left the surface of the Rheiard "Sheena!" he shouted quickly looking downward trying to see her, in the next five seconds Lloyd had flown next to Raine's Rheiard, quite literally thrown Genis by his shirt onto it, and turned around and dove down to where Sheena fell, as they were so high up she was still falling, he saw her quickly and put the Rheiard to its highest speed catching up quickly, as he got close he reached out a hand, not wanting to try and catch her on the Rheiard for fear that the sudden jolt would break it, she had little control but was able to get a firm grip on his hand after a couple seconds. Lloyd quickly slowed down the Rheiard and leveled off swinging Sheena onto the seat behind him. As he turned back towards the others he felt her arms wrap around him and her head rest against his back, after a few seconds he could tell she was crying silently, he took a last look at the tower to see it was almost completely gone and no more pieces were falling, he decided to not speed up, Sheena deserved some time.

It took the next hour to reach the small island with the Tethe'alla Renegade base on it. Everyone else was there already but didn't say anything when they saw the look on Lloyd's face. He didn't land but called down to the others "Are you guys ready? What the-" as he had said that the sky had flashed black for a second, then it did it again, finally it went all black for almost thirty seconds, slowly the blue came back, but not without changes. Dominating the sky was an enormous planet, easily taking up ten times the space that the moon did, it seemed purple and was glowing, everyone looked up in awe, Kratos bowed his head, Lloyd noticed "What is that Kratos?"

Kratos slowly raised his head "That is Derris-Kharlan, Mithos always kept it there, shrouded by a very powerful spell, the Tower was a sort of generator for the spell, and a magnet as well, in less than two weeks, it will be gone, the Tower was all that was keeping it here."

Raine didn't want to believe it "Impossible, how a planet of this size simply be there the whole time without anyone being able to tell it!"

Kratos continued speaking, "Mithos will be trying to get Collette desperately in the next few days, he wants to leave once he has her, we must hurry."

Lloyd nodded quickly "You heard him, lets go guys," the others jumped onto their Rheiards and Kratos grabbed hold of one of them then they each flew into the gateway atop the Base and disappeared.

A few seconds later they appeared in the northern corner of the Triet Desert, oddly in the sky looked normal, Kratos explained when Presea asked "Kharlan showed up in Tethe'alla because that is where the most mana is right now, and the Kharlan is acting as a sort of vacuum and once it leaves it will take all of the mana with it and the land will die."

The short ride to Dirk's home was uneventful, though Zelos joked constantly only getting laughs from Collette, after one particularly bad joke Lloyd called to Collette "You know you don't have to laugh Collette we won't mind and Zelos will live I'm sure."

Collette only smiled and called back "That's okay, I like Zelos' jokes." At this Zelos grinned from ear to ear and everyone else smacked their foreheads. They reached the house quickly and landed the Rheiards in an edge of the forest, Kratos called Lloyd to help him carry a few things he was pulling out of one of the Rheiards; the others went and sat down outside of Dirk's house while Lloyd and Kratos walked in.

"Hi Dad!" Lloyd said as he walked in.

Dirk was bent over his forge when he walked in but looked up quickly and smiled "Ah, Lloyd, it is good to see you my son, what can I do for you?"

"We need your skills one more time dad; we need to special key crests made." As he talked Kratos laid the materials out on the table, Dirk walked over to the table where Lloyd joined him. "Special ya say," Dirk said looking over the objects "I should hope so." Dirk picked up a large chunk of white, metallic rock.

Kratos spoke up "That's a special kind of inhibitor ore, I have to carve a special charm into it, while it is still red hot, I can do it, and it won't hurt."

Lloyd picked up a large bundle of wood looking it over "Is this sacred wood?"

Kratos nodded "From a corner of the Ymir Forest, that must fuel the fire." Dirk looked over the objects asked a few more questions and had Lloyd remove his key crest and exosphere to check one of the charms that was actually an instruction. Over the next few hours the forge was cleared out a new fire was build and they started working, the inhibitor ore melted incredibly fast and Dirk had to have Lloyd's help to avoid having the ore become impure. Lloyd helped where he could but Kratos simply had to stand by, as the crest was shaped and began to cool, as soon as it became solid Kratos picked it up with bare hands carved a very intricate charm on the inside of both of the crests then with his fingers touching both muttered a short incantation they glowed for a few seconds then faded, Kratos held out the crests to Lloyd who hesitated.

Kratos reassured him "You can hold them, the incantation cools them down." Lloyd shrugged and took them finding them not warm in the slightest he took off his gloves and put both of the key crests on his hands, replacing one of his gloves he removed the exospheres and placed them on both his hands and replaced both of his gloves, the exospheres out of the small holes in the gloves, then wrapped the white cloth about both of them.

Dirk patted Lloyd on the back "You've done good Lloyd, I have only one thing left to give you," he walked to a corner of the room and pulled out something wrapped in cloths. As he walked back he undid the cloth to reveal a beautiful square end sword, it was made of slightly phosphorescent blue metal, Dirk held it out to him hilt first, Lloyd hesitated then very carefully grasped the hilt, and Dirk stepped back. It felt perfect in his hand, he took a few swipes, it was light as air, Dirk smiled "that's the finest sword I ever created, Lloyd it's yours now." Dirk went back and took the sheath out of the corner Lloyd removed one of his other swords and attached the new one to his belt.

Then Kratos walked up "Lloyd you and I may be very different people but you are my last family and you do deserve better but I will give you what I have," Kratos drew out his flame style sword and held it out to him.

Lloyd stared at him for a few seconds "Are you sure Kratos?"

He nodded "I have no more use for it, Mithos no longer controls me, but I don't want it anyway." Lloyd shrugged then cautiously picked up the sword; he looked it over then got rid of his other sword and belted it on.

Lloyd looked at the two older men standing in front of him and smiled "Well both of you may have your own problems but thanks. I'm glad I have dads as good as both of you."

Dirk smiled and said "Sometimes Lloyd I do wish I could've done things better for you but this is what I have."

Lloyd smiled "You gave me what you could, I'm glad you did." Dirk grinned through his thick mustache.

Kratos said nothing for the next few seconds as Lloyd turned to look at him; he finally spoke up after about thirty seconds "Lloyd I am…I am honestly sorry things aren't different and I would change things if I knew then what I know now, but it was my mistake, and I think… I think I can finally forgive myself."

Lloyd nodded "I think I've forgiven you too."

Kratos smiled a rare smile "Thank you," he said. Then quickly he turned and walked out into the night.

Lloyd hesitated a minute then followed him; he caught up to him just as he had passed over the wooden bridge "Kratos!" Kratos turned but said nothing, indicating for Lloyd to speak. "This will be over in the next couple days do you… do you really have to leave again?"

Kratos slowly nodded his head "You are right Lloyd this will be over by the end of tomorrow but you must understand that if the Kharlan Tree returns then the Derris will no longer be needed, and will drift into space slowly, because of my power I will be able to return for a time but, I think before it drifts away completely that is where I will stay, the half-elves still need a ruler."

Lloyd nodded, but looked at the ground, speaking quietly "I wish other people could change the same way we have."

Kratos nodded "Me too Lloyd, I've wished that too many times to count, I'll keep in touch for as long as I can once you defeat Mithos." He then gave a short wave and walked a bit farther into the forest, then spread his wings and flew away, disappearing quickly.

Lloyd looked after him for a few seconds then walked slowly back to the house. Once he was up stairs and had sat down on the edge of his bed, he let out a long sigh, seeing this Collette stood up and walked over to him sitting on the bed next to him, he didn't acknowledge her presence.

After a few minutes she broke the silence "What's wrong Lloyd?" he told her. She looked at the floor for a few seconds then looked over and put her arms around him "We all make choices Lloyd, Kratos has made his, and I think I can understand why, but we can't his mind and… he does love you."

Lloyd let out another sigh, and then looked up "Thanks Collette," he said. She smiled and gave him another quick hug then went back to the small table where she and Raine were talking.

After that it seemed like the early days of the journey, and everyone relaxed for a few hours. Zelos, Lloyd and Genis talked for a time until Raine ordered Genis to bed, then just Zelos and Lloyd talked, Collette fell asleep while sitting in a chair and soon after Zelos woke her up and helped her to the sleeping area downstairs, where she quickly fell asleep again. Shortly after that Regal and Presea, who had been sitting to the side speaking softly, and rarely, both retired to the downstairs area as well.

Raine followed soon after, Zelos and Lloyd talked for awhile longer, then Zelos stood and stretched "Well this is all for me bud," Zelos yawned then said goodnight and walked down the stairs, a few seconds later his head reappeared "Psst! Lloyd!" he whispered. Lloyd turned his head slightly from the chair he was sitting on, Zelos had an all too familiar look on his face. "The only spot big enough for me down here is in between two of my hunnies hehehe!" he winked and slowly his head disappeared. Lloyd rolled his eyes and looked over at Sheena who had a smug look on her face she looked over at Lloyd and held up a power seal that had a small piece torn off of it, Lloyd grinned, Sheena grinned back then held up a hand sign there was a soft pop, a muffled yelp from Zelos, then a thud. Lloyd looked down the stairwell to see Zelos curled up at the bottom of the stairs rocking back and forth, clutching his rear end, Lloyd fought back a laugh, Zelos saw him "That's not funny."

Lloyd smiled "Actually Zelos I thought it was hilarious, besides I think you'll live," Zelos shut his eyes tight and whimpered.

Lloyd turned back to the room laughing softly, Sheena was giggling as well. They both stopped after a minute and were silent for a few more. Then Lloyd yawned and stood up "I need some air, care to join me? I'm just going out on the balcony," he said turning to Sheena she shrugged "Sure." They both walked out on the balcony Lloyd leaned on the railing and looked up at the stars.

Sheena stayed back for a minute then walked up next to him "What's on your mind?"

"Too much as usual, just wondering about Kratos and Mithos,"

"I think you should be more worried about Mithos, besides Kratos now is…understandable."

Lloyd rested his head on his arms as he leaned against the railing "Yeah you're right I was just thinking about the last conversation we had, I wish he could stay here."

"Well Lloyd he's had to make some pretty tough decisions over the past few days, I have a feeling his choice to leave Sylvarant and Tethe'alla was one of the harder ones."

Lloyd turned to look at her "Thanks Sheena," she blushed lightly and turned away slightly "No problem." They were silent for a minute, Sheena still standing back a little ways, after a minute she walked up right next to him. "Lloyd…" she started, he turned to look at her waiting for her to continue "I…just… thank you, thank you so much for saving me today."

His lips curved up in a small smile "It's what any of us would have done Sheena." Sheena looked away back out over the forest "Well still…thanks."

Lloyd smiled a bit wider "You're welcome, besides if I hadn't saved you I have a feeling Orochi would help you keep the promise about 1000 needles." She turned around quickly a nearly incredulous look on her face he had a large grin splitting his face, there was a short pause then they both dissolved into laughter, trying not to laugh too loudly and not being successful after a few minutes they stopped, breathing heavily. After they both caught their breath they walked back into the house Sheena took a quick look in the bottom room before slowly walking back up she hesitated before saying "Hey Lloyd?"

He turned "Huh?"

"Sorry but the sleeping area is pretty much full, can I just stay up here for the night? I'll just use the couch."

Lloyd nodded quickly "Sure Sheena, you want the bed instead? I can sleep on the couch."

Sheena shook her head "No you can have the bed; I doubt you've even slept in it once since you were banished." A sad look crossed Lloyd's face for a second and he nodded slowly "S-Sorry, I didn't mean to bring that up," Sheena stammered, looking rather ashamed.

Lloyd waved a hand "Don't worry about it, and yeah you are right, thanks again, and here," he handed her one of the blankets from off his bed "it rarely gets cold around here so I never need both of them." Sheena took the blanket and spread it out over the couch as best she could then looked at Lloyd through the corner of her eye and cleared her throat. He blushed lightly "Sorry," then turned his back, when she gave him the okay to turn around she was already under the blanket, he smiled to himself then got into his bed, and was about to blow out the candle which now provided the only light when he stopped and looked over at Sheena, he hesitated then slowly said "Hey Sheena I—

"Lloyd…go to sleep."

He laughed softly "Sorry," then he blew out the candle. He fell asleep quickly but in the middle of the night was woken when someone moved onto the bed with him, he cracked an eye, and looked down to see Sheena next to him, giving him an unreadable look

"Sorry," she whispered "Mizuho is a lot warmer than this." She then turned over and was quickly asleep again, he watched her for a minute before falling asleep again thinking a new thought '_I do love Sheena.'_

The next morning things moved fast, everyone was up shortly after the sun peaked over the horizon, with the exception of Zelos who was quickly woken up when Raine smacked him. "So," Lloyd said as the whole group was gathering "should we got to the ruins of the tower in Sylvarant or go back to Tethe'alla?"

"Well," Raine said "the tower is actually just to the west and south of us, over the ocean a little ways."

"That would be the fastest," Genis said.

"Hang on a second everyone;" Collette interrupted "let me check something." She quickly grew her wings and rose up slowly above the trees and looked around, then moved back to the ground. "Looks like the Tower of Salvation is gone guys, it must've disappeared after the world split again. Sorry everyone."

"Ugh, Collette, don't say sorry, you don't have control of that," Lloyd said.

Collette smiled "I know, I'm sorry."

Lloyd shook his head "Well I guess we have to go back to Tethe'alla, it's not too long of a trip, we'll move fast, everybody read?" Everyone nodded and after Lloyd went to say good-bye to Dirk they were in the air. This time things were much more relaxed and even though they moved fast, everyone talked, they made it to the Sylvarant base in thirty minutes and in the next three were in Tethe'alla. Now things were more serious, they quickly moved toward the ruins of the tower, Lloyd was suspicious that lesser angels would attack and had Genis take over their Rheiard while he drew his swords, eyes canning the sky constantly, Presea and Zelos did likewise but no angels appeared. They reached the ruin and set the Rheiards on the edge then after navigating a small boulder field found the light staircase and made it inside which was slowly falling apart and the floor was tilted.

The enormous broad sword that was the Eternal Sword was still stuck in the floor, Raine did quick scan of the area with a spell then nodded at Lloyd "It's all safe you can pull it out pretty easily and for what I know about it, it can control itself so once you pull it out, it may do something, stay calm."

Lloyd nodded "Alright." He walked up and stood behind the sword placing both his hands on the hilt which was as long as his arm, he tugged hard expecting to have to struggle to free it, but it came out easily and even more surprising it had almost no weight. Shortly after he pulled it out it began floating upward and he had to let go, it moved unit the end of the hilt was a few inches above his head then the whole sword glowed, covered in sparkles as it sparkled, it faded and the sparkles funneled downward and into the hilts of his two swords. "Well I admit that's not what I expected," Lloyd said, to no one in particular.

Genis laughed and shrugged "Well Lloyd not much has been what we expected for a long time."

Now everyone laughed lightly as Lloyd walked back down, he had almost reached the group when yet another tremor, this one not as hard shook the ground, knocking everyone off balance "Ah! Now what?" Lloyd yelled in frustration, and then Mithos' voice broke through.

"Ahhhhh! Fine! If I cannot have the one that I wanted, I will take who there is!" Then Mithos appeared right in front of Sheena, his hands closing around her neck, she struggled but his grip was too strong, then he faded and it seemed like he was gone, Sheena slumped where she stood.

Lloyd slowly approached and leaned down trying to get a look at her face "Sheena?" he said slowly as she did not respond.

Her face slowly raised then he saw her eyes, the normally deep brown was now an odd mix of red and blue, then she spoke, not in her own voice "Sheena? No…Mithos!" Lloyd instantly had his swords in his hands. "Now now Lloyd, this is still her body, I wouldn't attack." Lloyd relaxed his stance just barely, lowering his swords "Come on Sheena," he said slowly "you're better than him fight back!"

Now he laughed "Please, Sheena is gone, she can't do anything now, and now I can leave, once Martel has her body, bye now." Before anything could be done, her body turned transparent, then disappeared completely.

Lloyd ran forward just as she disappeared shouting "No!" then as he realized she was gone he fell to his knees, beating the floor with his fists. "Dammit!" No one approached unit he raised back up then slowly stood, he turned to the group "We have two hours now we have to get to Derris-Kharlan, unfortunately I don't know how."

Raine stepped forward "Lloyd we may only need a few minutes, the sword holds an immense amount of power and in the eyes of some it is a sentient thing , use your two swords as a visual, command to be taken to the Derris."

Lloyd nodded quickly, as everyone gathered around, "Thanks Professor." Raine smiled and nodded. Lloyd held his two swords in front of his face and took a deep breath, closing his eyes while he did so, then when he opened his eyes he spoke in a loud voice "Eternal Sword, take us to Derris-Kharlan!" the two blades glowed for a few seconds, then seemed to fuse and disappear and the enormous broad sword took their place, then a strange voice of no recognizable gender emanated from it "Acknowledged." Then the blade glowed a brilliant white and the group faded then disappeared, on to Derris-Kharlan


	2. Chapter 2

I do not own Tales of Symphonia in any way, shape, or form

Chapter 2

The group appeared a few seconds later on a large circular platform. The area around them looked like something in the mind; any land they could see around them was on the same circular platforms built of a stone that no one could recognize. Everything else was open air and was shrouded by the strange purple clouds that seemed to cover the entire place. Lloyd ended up back with his two swords, somehow sheathed, he quickly drew them and held them by his side and turned to face the rest of the group, Zelos had drawn his sword as well, he gave them a nod "Let's go."

They moved through the maze of platforms relatively quickly the only things slowing them down were several lower class angels and revived souls who were more of a hindrance than a danger. After a particularly large attack by a group of angels that left Zelos and Lloyd breathing hard but uninjured they came to a larger platform that at the other end had a jut with a warp circle on it "Look everyone that must be the next warp up, one more and we'll be in Welgaia," Lloyd said. Without waiting Lloyd ran forward towards the warp just as he reached it Collette's voice stopped him "Lloyd wait, we need help!"

He turned quickly to see everyone right behind him but trapped behind a semi-transparent wall of energy, then he noticed the floor, it was a hidden warp gate, but much larger as he watched Presea disappeared and he noticed Regal was already gone.

Raine spoke quickly "Mithos must want you separated from us, be careful," she had just finished when she too disappeared.

Zelos then said "Lloyd when you get to Welgaia, remember…" but he disappeared.

Now it was just Genis and Collette, Genis laughed "Don't worry about me Lloyd, see you later!"

Lloyd looked at Collette "Sorry," he managed to say.

She smiled "It's okay Lloyd, remember you are my guardian, you'll save me, I know you will," then she waved and disappeared. Lloyd stared at the spot for a few seconds before turning around and stepping onto the warp spot. The place where he stepped out was familiar, the same platforms and clouds, the only difference being that the platforms were larger and some had actual features on them, and now not so many were circles.

Lloyd continued through the maze of bridges and platforms avoiding all the monsters that he saw, unless there was only one of them, hoping to find something of use he didn't find anything. After what was probably thirty minutes he came to another platform with two possible ways to go off to his left he could see the platform there, it wasn't very far away and was small _'Nothing special'_ Lloyd thought, off to his right he couldn't see the platform, not because it was too far away but because about 50 feet out it was covered by the clouds and disappeared, though there seemed to be a very faint glow coming through the clouds. Lloyd quickly decided to go on the right path and drew his two swords, as he entered the bank of clouds, the sword that Dirk had given him lit up a bit more and created about a three foot field of vision in front of him. It was slow going as the path wasn't very wide and the off chance that he encountered a monster he had to keep one eye ahead of and one on the ground to make sure he didn't fall. He only encountered one monster and shortly after seeing it, was able to knock it off the ledge, the clouds had been getting thicker for a time but now he noticed they were starting to lessen, a bit more, confident he went into a slow jog and in the next ten minutes burst out of the clouds. In front of him was the largest platform he had seen so far, it was easily sixty feet across and had pillars around the edge like a temple, opening in one spot where a flight of stairs went down to where Lloyd stood, he could also see a semi bright glow coming from the top, he gripped his swords a bit tighter and walked slowly up the stairs, slightly nervous of what he would find. As he got to about the last seven steps he crouched down and peaked very slowly over the top to see Sheena standing close to the middle of the platform where a warp gate stood, Lloyd stood up a little more but was hesitant to go onto the platform _'I bet she's still under the control of Mithos'_ he thought. The next ten seconds changed his mind as she quite suddenly fell to her knees and let out a short scream, in Sheena's voice instead of Mithos', her whole body began to shake and she clutched her head in her hands and shouted "Get out!" then he heard a boy grunt in pant and frustration and looked again to see Mithos standing next to her, he quickly ducked down, hoping he had not been seen.

He heard Mithos shout again in anger then he said "Well I guess I don't need you anymore anyway." Then there was silence, he looked again and saw that Mithos was gone and Sheena was still on her hands and knees, he quickly stood up and moved over to where she was, and rested a hand on her shoulder when she didn't notice him. She was obviously startled and turned her head with one of her cards in her hand in less than a second, but when she saw Lloyd she moved just as fast to stand up, put way the card, and wrap her arms around his neck, hugging him tight. It took him a few seconds to get over the initial shock, then he hugged her back, his heart was pounding, he was just hoping she didn't notice. After a couple of minutes she pulled away slightly, keeping her hands on his shoulders, he seemed oblivious that his were still wrapped around her, but she didn't mind, this being the boy she had been in love with since the Lightning Temple, after another minute of silence she smiled "it is good to see you Lloyd," she said.

He smiled back "You too Sheena."

There was another pause then Sheena said "Where are the others?"

The smile on Lloyd's face immediately disappeared "The others…shortly after we got here Mithos had a trap set, a warp gate big enough to transport several people, he let me through, everyone else got stuck, I think they are in Welgaia."

Sheena's face fell "Sorry I wasn't there to help," she muttered.

Lloyd laughed at this, which surprised her "What are you talking about? If you had been with us you would be a prisoner in Welgaia right now, I'm glad you're here to help me out Sheena."

She smiled slightly but looked away, "I'm not sure I should help."

Lloyd was shocked, having known Sheena as someone who liked a good fight "Why?"

She spoke softly, her head still turned away "Well I guess you saw me kick Mithos out, but I'm afraid he might've left something behind, and that I might fall back under his control during a fight."

Lloyd smiled slightly then after a few seconds of silence said "Sheena, just…look at my eyes for a minute." She hesitated then looked at him out of the corner of her eye; he raised his eyebrows "Come on."

She mentally shrugged "Um…okay." She turned her head and looked up at his light brown eyes, he stared back calmly, and there was a minute of uncertain silence by the end of which Sheena was blushing noticeably she finally said "This is embarrassing."

He grinned and laughed "And that is proof that it's all you Sheena." She quickly looked away, blushing again and smacked him on the arm "That isn't funny."

He laughed again "I was surprised you made it that long."

Sheena relaxed a bit waiting for her face to lose the redness, she turned back to him "Shouldn't we be going?"

Lloyd quickly stopped laughing and drew his swords "Yeah, you're right, we've wasted some time Welgaia has to be close." They walked up to the warp gate, he stepped back "Ladies first."

She rolled her eyes "Gee thanks," she said then pulled out one of her seals and stepped onto the gate and quickly disappeared, Lloyd stepped on a second later.

When he stepped out it was the corner of Welgaia where the data computer and refreshers were, Sheena was waiting and they moved across the small chasm to the main city. As they moved across the area Lloyd noticed a flash of light from below the platform, he looked at Sheena "Did you see that?"

She nodded "Yeah, weren't there prison cells down there?"

"I think so, let's check it out." The two stepped onto the small elevator platform and moved down as the glass cells came into view they saw Raine and Genis.

Genis was about to cast another spell when he saw them he stopped, but then all of the sudden looked even more depressed "Oh jeez Lloyd! Mithos got you too, well that's it, and we're screwed."

Sheena made an exasperated noise and put her hands on her hips "You idiot it's not Mithos anymore! Lloyd is there anyway we can get Rained and pick up Genis later?"

Lloyd laughed at this and Genis quickly said "Sorry Sheena guess I jumped to conclusions. You'll let me out right Lloyd?"

Lloyd closed his eyes and brought a hand up to his chin "Thinking about it," he winked at Sheena, who giggled.

"Lloyd!" Lloyd laughed again "Alright calm down," he then proceeded to cut holes in the glass using Kratos' sword.

As Raine stepped out she said "Any idea where the others might be?"

Lloyd thought for a few seconds then said "Well there was another cell next to the one that Regal blasted the first time we were here the first time, I bet someone is in there."

The others nodded "As good a place as any to start." Raine said "Let's go."

They moved across the city quickly until they got to the warp spot that led to the small prison and stepped on in twos. When they arrived they saw that Regal and Presea were indeed stuck in the other cell, they quickly ran over to them "Regal, Presea, you two okay?" Lloyd asked as he got close.

`Regal stood and walked up to the bars where Presea joined him "We're fine," Regal said.

"Have you not been able to use that thing like when we were here last?"

Regal shook his head "That is a very dangerous attack if I would've done it again so soon there is a very good chance it would have shattered every bone in my hands."

Lloyd shuddered, hearing this "Oh, I see, well can anyone here pick locks?"

Sheena nodded "Yes actually I can, but that usually takes awhile and we don't have a ton of time."

"Well then this is a problem," Lloyd said, scratching his head.

"I've got it," Genis said, and before anyone could ask how, he stepped forward, raised his kendama closed his eyes and pushed his hand forward ever so slightly, and the lock clicked.

As the door swung open and Presea and Regal stepped out Lloyd and Sheena looked impressed "How'd you do that?" Lloyd said.

Genis grinned "I used a tiny wind spell and pushed the mechanism, simple really." Raine and Regal both nodded, giving Genis approving looks, and Lloyd patted him on the back "Way to go Genis."

Now Lloyd turned to Regal and Presea "Do either of you have any idea where Zelos and Collette would be?"

Regal thought for a minute "They put us here last, and I was able to guess where Raine and Genis were placed, but I can't give an even semi-accurate guess," he said, then looked at Presea who hand not said anything yet "I think they are on one of the floors above us, we will have to use the elevator on the next floor up. I don't know which one so we will have to check them all."

Lloyd nodded "Okay sounds like a likely place to find them, let's go." The now 75 percent full group moved back to the warp gate and went on in twos until they all were at the main area, they moved over to the elevator and everyone stepped inside "Going up," Lloyd said and hit to go to the second floor. The second and third floors were relatively with the exception of a couple of lower class angels who ignored them. On the fourth floor Regal found a different pair of greaves and quickly began to replace his older ones, as he did that Lloyd gathered the others around "Well they have to be on the next floor and because these places can't be locked there are probably several warrior angels, guarding them so let's try to be ready before we get there, Raine could you maybe use one of your healing spells on the whole group?"

Raine nodded "Sure, let me get it ready." Regal quickly joined the group and Raine muttered a quick incantation "Healing circle." The rune circle appeared on the floor for a few seconds then disappeared, they all got back on the elevator and Lloyd hit the button to the top floor, then drew his swords and Genis muttered an incantation, causing his Kendama to glow lightly, but he didn't say the casting words yet. As the doors opened they immediately saw Collette and Zelos, however they also saw four angel swordians, and archer, and a commander, the four swordians instantly charged at the group. Genis raised his Kendama and spoke two words "Gravity well!" The floor sank instantly and the four swordians were slammed onto the floor. Lloyd moved forward and before any of them could get up he had stabbed both of his swords through one of the swordians' chest, its body convulsed for a second then went limp. Sheena and Presea quickly joined him at the front and as Genis' spell wore off, the three remaining swordians rose back up. Presea and Lloyd both engaged one of the swordians each, and were both slowly gaining ground, and Regal joined Sheena, after one of her attacks faltered when the swordians tried to trip her. Once Sheena had her balance back she and Regal made quick work of the swordians and Regal gave the last blow with a kick that came off a back-flip, shattering the swordians' skull, but as it fell to the ground, the commander rushed forward catching Regal off guard and slammed him into the wall where he clutched at one of his legs, grimacing in pain. Raine rushed to heal him but now Sheena was in a very bad situation with the commander and the archer who so far had been able to do nothing because each arrow shot was deflected by someone, or redirected by Genis, but now had a chance to shoot, and possibly hit Sheena. Lloyd quickly saw this and blocked another attack from the swordians he was fighting, to his left he saw Presea smash away the blade of the weakened swordian she was fighting and then rent the swordian in two, she quickly turned to see the situation and nodded to Lloyd, he ran towards Sheena who was now doing her best to hold off attacks from the commander and dodge arrows as the archer had finally found a way around Genis' magic, by shooting an arrow at him at the same time. Sheena stumbled and as the commander raised his sword, Lloyd threw Kratos' sword and knocked the commander's sword out of his hand, and now with nothing to defend himself Lloyd impaled him through the chest, blood spilled from his mouth and he coughed once, then went limp. The archer fired another arrow, but Lloyd knocked it down with his sword, after quickly pulling it out of the commander's chest. As he blocked the arrows Presea came running from the dismembered body of the last swordian and promptly beheaded the archer. Lloyd sheathed his sword then turned to Sheena who was back on her feet, he placed his hands on her shoulders "You okay Sheena?"

She blushed a light shade of red but added "Yeah I'm fine; one of his moves caught me off guard."

Lloyd moved his hands away and shrugged "It happens to the best of us." She nodded "Thanks." Lloyd nodded and smiled. Now looking around he saw that Zelos was walking out of one of the side rooms holding his beam sword and Collette's pair of chakram, along with Lloyd's other sword, which he tossed to him.

About one second later Lloyd was nearly knocked on his face as Collette ran up to hug him from behind "Lloyd I knew you'd show up, I was just waiting, I knew it though."

After recovering Lloyd slowly turned around and hugged her back "I wouldn't forget about you Collette." Sheena who had been enjoying having Lloyd next to her again, saw this and thought to herself _'Well I guess that was really my last shot, dammit.'_

As Collette let go of Lloyd he turned back again and saw that Regal was standing again and wasn't limping at all. The group gathered back around, whole once more and Lloyd said "Okay nice to have all of you back now we can finally finish this, there's only one thing left we have to do, Mithos' castle must be in the place where that big warp spot is, the one that was blocked from us the first time we were here, it must be where the spot that the Vinheim key goes is."

Raine nodded "That makes the most sense, we should head there."

Collette then spoke up "Lloyd?" he turned to look at her "I want to talk to Mithos before we do anything, once we get there."

Lloyd nodded slowly "Yeah, we all understand, we'll help you."

Genis pumped a fist in the air "I'll help you the most Collette!" Collette smiled and nodded. Then with that the eight friends crowded back onto the elevator, this time Sheena stayed to the other side, as Collette was right next to Lloyd. They quickly reached the bottom and after running along the moving sidewalk they reached the maze of platforms and the huge warp spot, Lloyd made sure everyone was ready then they all stepped on at the same time.

The spot they ended up in was perhaps even more amazing than the parts of Welgaia they had already seen. It was a large room in height only as they couldn't even see the ceiling and the pillars that stood against both walls disappeared after going up so far, there were three doors that they could see, one on each side, that were on opposite sides, they were normal sized and from these two rooms there was a soft green light coming through, the last door was in front of them at the top of short flight of stairs, it was enormous, easily 60 feet tall, with a beautiful design on the front, and in front of it the group saw the largest dragon they had ever seen, dwarfing the dragon they found in the Earth Temple and even a bit taller than the Golden Dragon they had encountered in the Torrent Forest.

Lloyd stared up at it for a few seconds, and then turned to face the others. "Well guys, are we going to move straight forward or try to find something to help us out? You all know me, so you know what I want." Zelos, Sheena, and Collette all went along with Lloyd, but the others were not so hasty to agree.

Until Raine spoke up "I must say I will side with Lloyd." At this Lloyd nearly fell over and Genis gave Raine a look that said 'who are you and what have you done with my sister.'

After seeing the looks Raine continued "For all we know we might not find anything and there are probably quite a few swordians and Dark Spears flying around here and if we encounter them I'll have to heal all of you again and I can only cast spells for so long."

Genis thought it over for a few seconds then nodded "She's right."

Lloyd clenched his fist "All right! Let's not waste anymore time then, for this one Presea, Regal, Sheena, and Genis, do as much damage as you can on his legs, see if you can break, or at least damage them, Zelos and I will be in there too, but if his head lowers the rest of you get out of the way. Raine you know your job, Collette do what you can but don't get too close." There was a chorus of "Right!" then Lloyd drew his swords and Sheena, Regal, Presea and Zelos walked up next to him.

"One more thing everyone," Collette said, and as everyone turned Collette grew her wings, spread her arms and said loudly "Holy Song!" a small wave of energy was released and everyone looked around.

"What was that Collette?" Lloyd asked.

Collette smiled "One of my angelic abilities, this next battle we will all be stronger, faster, and just better overall."

Lloyd nodded, impressed "That's great, thanks Collette!" She nodded and smiled again, "Okay, let's go," Lloyd announced and they all walked up the short flight of stairs to the feet of the dragon, as they approached, its head which had been looking straight forward now looked down.

As they all stopped it spoke in a loud, but gravelly voice "I am the guard of the master of this world, will you challenge me?"

Lloyd nodded and shouted "We challenge you to get to Mithos!"

There was a moment of silence then the dragon said "Then you all must be destroyed."

Then its head moved forward, blinding fast for its size, intent on devouring Lloyd, the group scattered except for Lloyd who simply jumped just out of range and thrust both his swords at the dragon's face, damaging the softer flesh around its nose, making its nose bleed. The dragon quickly reared its head back obviously irritated by the wound and realizing that just trying to bite them would be nearly pointless, it tried a different strategy. The main group was to its left so it moved its head even farther left and breathed a stream of dark fire from its mouth and started moving left, the group quickly began to run to the center and when they did this the dragon used its speed and stopped breathing fire and lunged its head to where the group would be, but again the attack failed when Lloyd dove in front and used Guardian, and the bite did nothing, then before it could move away Genis shouted "Aqua Edge!" and shot several condensed water disks at the dragon's head, stunning it momentarily. This was all Lloyd, Zelos, and Presea needed to see and the three moved forward quickly hacking away at its head and neck area adding about eight cuts to the bloody nose, two or three were deep. That would've been the end if not for the dragon shaking its monstrous head and knocking the three away. It had already been weakened considerably as the dragon rose back up Sheena made her move running forward dodging the dragon's claws with ease and ran circles around its legs three times placing several power seals on each, then as she back flipped away from another claw swipe she sped through several hand signs and shouted "Power Seal: Release!" There were two medium sized explosions on the dragon's legs and it roared in pain and fell to the ground its tongue lulling out of its mouth. Lloyd saw this, leaped forward plunging the flame sword all the way through the monster's tongue and into the stone floor, blood poured out and the dragon writhed in agony but couldn't seem to free itself. It was thrashing in such pain that no one approached it for a few seconds, until Presea approached Lloyd and Zelos, the two turned to look at the small girl and she said in her semi-monotonous voice "Lloyd, Zelos I grow tired of this if both of you could throw me above its head, I will finish this." Lloyd and Zelos looked at each other for a second then nodded and held their arms out the girl stepped onto the, holding her huge axe that was nearly as big as her, carefully, the two men took a few practice swings then threw her. As Presea got over the dragon's head she raised her axe and the others heard her say "Devastation." Then as she swung down the attack that could shatter stones, cleaved the dragon's skull, it roared one last time for only a second then was silent.

As Presea removed her axe and jumped off the dragon's destroyed head, everyone seemed frozen as she got back to the group Lloyd said cautiously "Presea, have I ever made you angry?"

Presea stopped and looked up before saying simply "No."

Lloyd nodded "Okay," in his mind he thought _'Thank god, I hope I never do."_ Everyone started to walk around the dragon's enormous carcass and Lloyd pulled his sword from its tongue before following. They reached the door and in the very center was an odd shaped lock, Genis looked at Lloyd "That must be the lock for the Vinheim Key, try it Lloyd." Lloyd pulled the key off from around his neck where he had been keeping it and put the tip into the lock, it moved easily and turned, Lloyd thought he might have to ask for some help but found the doors to be almost weightless. The sight when he opened them was impressive to say the least and he heard Collette gasp. In front of them was a small platform that looked like it may have been once part of a larger one, in the center was a circular rune that Lloyd could only guess was a warp, a huge spot of empty space sat in front of the platform, in the distance was much larger platform far above it they all looked out into the center out into the center of the platform. (actual game dialogue starting) Lloyd was staring at the one in the distance a look of determination in his eyes "Mithos is just ahead," he said.

Collette walked up next to him "And the Great Seed should be there too."

Lloyd turned to face the others "This is it everyone…are you ready?"

Raine who was standing towards the front was first to answer "I'm ready, I'm prepared to accept, whatever happens in the coming battle, and we will win!"

Sheena was quick to follow suit, she was standing in the back "Yeah, we're gonna win, for Mizuho, Corrine and for all of you who believed in a coward like me."

Collette looked sad when she spoke next "And, for myself too, I don't want anyone else to make the same mistake I did. No one should have to think that he has to sacrifice his own life."

Genis then moved to stand with Lloyd and Collette "Everyone should be able to live freely, no matter who they are. Humans and elves, and even us, it's okay for us to be here, in this world."

Then Regal, who had barely spoken said in his calm but commanding voice "Yes, that's why we must recover the Great Seed from Mithos and revive the Giant Tree. Without it not only will we be unable to restore peace between the different races."

Presea continued his thought "The world itself will die, we can't let that happen, we must reunite the worlds, afterward we shall make a new promise to the new world."

Zelos, who had been silent for awhile walked up to the front "The people that I like and the people that I don't, both have the right to live in the same world as I do. Because that's the way it should be. So count me in, I won't run from this one."

Lloyd nodded and clenched a fist in front of his face "All right! Let's go, we're going to restore a world where everyone can live freely." The group quickly gathered onto the rune circle where it glowed and spun for a few seconds then the group disappeared to finally confront Mithos.

They reappeared at the edged of the large platform and walked forward to the open spent where a few steps went up and there was Mithos in his older form known as Yggdrasill, his eyes were closed and he had a serene look face and was floating a few inches off the ground, his wings beating softly. Then he spoke, his eyes still closed "Home…I'm going home."

Lloyd stopped when he heard him speak and Genis ran up to stand next to him "Mithos, listen to me! We don't have to fight! Please return the Great Seed to us so that we can reunite the worlds."

There was a short pause then Yggdrasill spoke again "Home…I'm going home."

Lloyd scratched his head "Something's wrong," he said "He sounds like a puppet." Then he heard Sheena cry out and turned to see a Cruxis Crystal appear from her chest, it floated towards Yggdrasill and disappeared into his chest. Lloyd looked from Sheena to Yggdrasill and back, Genis went to help Sheena and she gave him a nod.

He turned to see Yggdrasill had opened his eyes and the same arrogant smile was on his face, then he said "I need to thank you for going through all the trouble to bring me back here, I'm finally myself again."

Lloyd scowled then said through clenched teeth "Damn! So that's what this is all about!"

Genis who was supporting Sheena then said "Mithos…Martel is dead."

Yggdrasill shook his head quickly "That's not true, Martel is alive just as I lived on in the Cruxis Crystal."

Lloyd had now calmed down a bit and held up his hands "That's not living, that's just existing as a lifeless being."

Yggdrasill cocked an eyebrow "What's wrong with that?"

Lloyd was caught off guard "What?!" he blurted.

Yggdrasill nodded "After all in our bodies flow the blood of humans and elves," he turned to regard Raine and Genis, then continued "the bloods of those who despise us," he shook his head "we're better off casting aside such filth and become lifeless beings."

Lloyd was still recovering "That's what you really want?"

Yggdrasill then spoke in the voice of his younger alter-ego Mithos "Of course, watch! When you become a lifeless being you can even control your appearance and growth." As he finished his older body flickered and the Mithos they knew originally then he continued speaking "Everyone should become lifeless beings, I told you before the only way to eliminate discrimination is for everyone to become the same race."

Lloyd had had enough and waved an arm cutting him off "What you hope for is nothing but a dream Mithos. Discrimination comes from the heart."

Genis nodded "He's right Mithos; it's the weakness of peoples hearts that causes discriminations. Looking down upon others while placing themselves too high."

Sheena now slowly rose to her feet and said, anger evident in her voice "You do the same thing! You look down on humans and elves, treating them like cattle!" She pointed a condemning finger at Mithos "That's the weakness of your heart."

Regal continued on her idea "Even if people become lifeless beings, nothing will change, discrimination will continue."

Mithos raised his hands "Then where shall the half-elves go? We aren't accepted anywhere. We opened our hearts, but no one took us in. Where should we live?"

Lloyd wasn't worried "You can live anywhere you like."

Mithos snorted "Don't make me laugh."

Lloyd nodded "I'm serious. Anywhere is fine. If you aren't doing anything wrong you should just live proudly in the open."

Mithos shook his head again and let it hang down "It's because we couldn't do that…that I… that we wanted a place of our own."

Zelos scoffed at this and waved a hand in front of his face, rolling his eyes "Uh-uh, sorry but don't act like you're the only victim here. It doesn't even come close to justifying all the things you've done."

Presea moved towards the front, then in a voice filled with loathing "What you've done caused meaningless suffering and death to countless people. Can you feel their pain?"

Raine had an unreadable expression on her face when she spoke "People can change, even if they don't change right away, months, years, and change is inevitable."

Collette moved forward and tried one more time "Maybe not everything can be forgiven, but one can try to atone for ones sins. Can't you feel it in your heart? The goddess known as conscience."

For once Mithos laughed with mirth, laughing loudly then he stopped "Do you think I'm going to beg for forgiveness? Ridiculous! There is no goddess so I will continue to pursue my ideas. If there is no place where I can live and if I've been denied my Age of Lifeless Beings then the only thing left for me is to build a new world on Derris-Kharlan! A world just for my sister and me, and none of you will stop me!" (actual game dialogue ending) Then without another word Mithos released his wings and lunged at the group. Lloyd drew his swords and knew the battle ahead would be the most trying of his life.

A/N: I'm publishing all of my written chapters at once, so you don't have to wait for anything. The next chapter is one huge battle, so I hope you like how I changed it a little bit. R&R please!


	3. Chapter 3

I do not own Tales of Symphonia in any way, shape or form

Chapter 3

Lloyd raised his swords as Mithos reached him and was nearly knocked over, he dug in as Mithos pummeled him with wave upon wave of energy, and slowly Lloyd was being pushed back, he slowly turned his head to look at Collette "Collette get out here, go to the edge of the platform, as far away as you can and stay there!" Collette shook her head slowly, tears forming in her eyes

"Lloyd I don't…"

"COLLETTE! You have to listen to me this time, the rest of us can handle this, just GO!" As he spoke Zelos flew in from the side and knocked Mithos away, but it was shown then that a constant force field was around him and that the filed was what had been doing most of the damage. Lloyd gave Collette one more look and she mouthed "Sorry," with tears in her eyes then she ran towards the back. Lloyd didn't have time to watch her go as Zelos was sent flying and he ran back towards Mithos who was now simply standing still and not doing anything as Presea and Regal attempted to break through the field and Lloyd quickly joined them, but it turned out to be no use, and Genis had been hesitating but as he saw Presea knocked away he quickly shouted the words of an incantation "Reduce this enemy to ashes!" then he screamed as loud as anyone had heard "EXPLOSION!" a huge fireball fell down onto Mithos and for the first time the shield flickered but Mithos wasn't injured and the he noticed. Quickly though Lloyd, Sheena and Zelos tried to stop him, Sheena using several of her power seals, but it didn't matter and Mithos gathered a bit of energy and quickly released shouting "Judgment!" Less then five seconds later beams of energy began to rain down around them, everyone scattered but it seemed like Mithos knew where they would run before they did and no one wasn't effected by the energy rain.

When it ended Lloyd was till on his feet and he looked to see Genis was getting back to his feet "Genis, can you use that spell again?" he shouted.

Genis nodded shakily "Yeah, but that will take a lot of my power, and he'll probably just dodge it."

Lloyd shook his head quickly "Leave the movement of Mithos to us, just do it."

Genis nodded again "It will take about a minute to do it." As Genis began to gather the necessary energy and speak the incantations Lloyd ran towards Mithos, waving his arm for everyone else to follow him, and they quickly formed a tight circle around Mithos who after a few seconds released another pulse of energy, and although bruises and cuts appeared on everyone's arms and legs, they weren't pushed back more than a few inches and quickly reformed the circle, now Mithos looked nervous, then Lloyd heard Genis shout "Explosion!" and as he saw the sky above glow red he shouted "Get back everyone!" the group made it away just as the huge fireball struck and even before the smoke began to clear Lloyd rushed back in and everyone heard Mithos grunt in pain, then Lloyd came flying back out and as the smoke cleared they saw Mithos with his shield back up clutching his arm which had blood running off it in a noticeable amount.

Zelos went and pulled Lloyd to his feet, smiling "Well it's progress," he said as he pulled Lloyd up.

They heard Mithos growl and turned as he shouted "Damn you all!"

Lloyd shouted back "Mithos you can't kill an entire planet just so you and your sister can live."

Mithos wasn't affected "You don't understand," he said in a quiet but hateful voice.

Lloyd raised his swords again and shouted again at Mithos "You're the one who doesn't understand!" Then he charged forward and the others followed again they tried to break his shield but nothing seemed to phase it, not even Presea's more powerful attacks.

Finally Mithos shouted over the clanging of metal "Enough of this!" then he released a powerful energy wave knocking everyone back and then release seven bolts of electricity at each person. Most either jumped or rolled to avoid them but Presea had been knocked down by the pulse and was just getting back up and just before the bolt hit her Regal dove in front and was hit instead, he yelled once as he flew through the air then landed and lay still.

Raine quickly ran to him but as she lowered her staff a bolt hit it and nothing happened "What in the world?" she said, confused.

Lloyd turned to her "What is it professor?" she shook her head "I can't resurrect him." Lloyd's eyes grew wide, and Raine noticed, "That's not why," she assured him "he's alive, just unconscious and I can't cast any of my spells."

Mithos spoke up "You're exactly right, I shut them off, and you can't use any of your magic." A strange look crossed Raine's face then she smashed her staff on the ground shouting in frustration, Lloyd was surprised she did not break the staff.

Lloyd said slowly "Move him away, please Raine, if you can." She looked up and nodded. Lloyd turned back then motioned everyone forward again and they formed another circle around Mithos.

Mithos was smiling again and shaking his head said, "Do you really think you can defeat me?"

There was a long pause and Lloyd spoke up "Yeah, honestly I do, cause if we don't the whole world will die and if we die defeating you, I'll be happy." Then the group rushed forward again but still they could not break his shield and after a few seconds they were all thrown back, again adding several new cuts and bruises to their collections. Presea had been attacking particularly ferociously after seeing Regal take the hit for her and now she was covered with bruises and was bleeding from a half dozen wounds. When they made the next attack Presea moved to the front and reached Mithos first raising her axe Mithos simply raised a hand and shot a bolt of lighting into her, she dropped to the ground like a stone and the group stopped and again found Presea deep in a state of unconsciousness.

They moved her away and walked back forward, now it was Genis who was angry, he looked at Lloyd "We have to get rid of the field Lloyd."

Lloyd looked at Genis and nodded but then shrugged "But what can we do Genis?" he said.

Genis glanced quickly at Mithos then said in a much quieter voice, "I think I can turn my force field spell into an offensive one and disrupt his force field. I do not know if it will work though."

Lloyd shrugged at this "We have to do something, how long do you need?"

Genis thought for a second "A couple of minutes tops."

Lloyd nodded then ran to the others "Guys, Genis has an idea to get rid of his force field he needs some time, we're providing it, we're going to try passing Mithos back and forth between us, so he doesn't have time to cast a spell or release any of his energy pulses." The last two nodded then the made another charge. As they got close they fanned out, the others stopped, and Lloyd kept running. H hacked as hard as he could against the filed but to no effect, then as he saw Mithos gathering energy he jumped behind Mithos and lowered his shoulder to push Mithos away "Your up Zelos!" he shouted as Mithos flew towards the self-proclaimed gleaming knight. When he got there Zelos thrust his sword straight forward stopping Mithos, then before Mithos could react Zelos was behind him hacking away again and when he turned that way the red-haired Chosen disappeared again and was at his right, finally as Zelos began to slow down he placed himself in front and thrust his sword again shouting "Sonic Thrust!" Now Mithos flew towards Sheena, and this time she was ready, as he reached her she moved downward and kicked up using her incredible acrobatic skills and powerful legs, sending Mithos into the air with kicks that would have left anyone else bloodied and broken. As he reached a high point Sheena back flipped above him and slammed him back down with a powerful hammer kick where at the bottom, Lloyd waited.

As Mithos got close Lloyd jumped and slammed him back to the ground than as he rose up Lloyd saw Genis stand up from where he had been crouching and begin to radiated energy he shouted "Lloyd push him towards me!" Lloyd nodded quickly and again lowered a shoulder and pushed Mithos towards Genis who raised his kendama and shouted "Force field throwback!" the something interesting happened a force field appeared in front of Genis then flew towards Mithos in a strange half-sphere shape and it looked like it would just bump off, but instead it just passed through. Then something even more interesting happened it seemed like there were clear lines being scribbled on Mithos' force field and the others realized that Mithos force field was disappearing, Genis rose to his feet with a triumphant grin.

Mithos was not as pleased "You think this matters!" he screamed "You will all die, but you first!" he finished looking directly at Genis before shooting another bolt of electricity from the palm of his hand.

Genis quickly raised his kendama and said "force field," but nothing happened, he had just enough time to look at Raine and say "Sorry sis," then the bolt hit him and fell to the ground, and then Mithos laughed. Hearing him laugh Raine held her staff out in front of her and slowly it began to give off energy, the other three backed away as the energy continued to rise, and Mithos stopped laughing to stare, this time in fear.

Raine's staff was glowing a brilliant blue color, then all of the sudden it seemed to disappear back inside and Raine screamed in a voice that would have made anyone else faint "Limited Ray!" Mithos new there was nothing he could do as the attack was designed to hit one person and one person only, and it would hit them no matter what, and then the bolt of light hit him. Everyone shielded their eyes as the ray impacted, the brightness slowly lessened and in front of them, they saw the bruised and broken body of Mithos, laying on the ground and Raine on her knees before she too fell forward.

The other three ran to her and after a checking a pulse Sheena nodded "She's okay, just exhausted."

Then they turned to look at Mithos, Zelos was first to speak "So, did we win, is this it?"

There was a long pause then Lloyd shook his head "I don't think so." As those words left his mouth Mithos body changed to his older alter ego Yggdrasill and rose up then out of the floor came a bizarre machine, it was nearly all spikes and sharp edges and in the middle sat Yggdrasill behind a glass shield; Zelos let out a long sigh "Great."

Then the machines "arms" jerked forward, surprisingly fast and with spinning blades on the ends, the last three jumped away and Lloyd tried to get to the side but the arms swiveled and stopped him again the same for Zelos and Sheena, as it seemed that the machines three arms could move independently. They kept trying but not all three were moving nearly as fast as when the fight started and the spinning blades found their marks on all three more than once. Then as the group scattered again, and the three arms swiveled, Zelos stood his ground. Then just before it touched him he stepped to the side and brought his sword down as hard as he could, severing the blade from the arm. Then in an instant, he was next to the glass that protected Yggdrasill and he took two quick swings, cracking the glass, and that was all he got as the tow other arms swiveled around and caught the gleaming knight in the middle. He yelled in agony, the arms moved away, and he fell to the ground, unmoving. Lloyd quickly told Sheena to move Zelos away and she obliged, as she did, he ran circles around the machine simply using time the only way he could think to do. He saw Sheena returning and smiled, then a split-second later he regretted ever looking away, as he looked back one of the blades was right in front of him, he stumbled backward but couldn't keep his feet and fell back onto the ground, he heard Sheena shout "Lloyd!" Then the other blade appeared and they plunged toward him. With nothing else to do he held up his arms to protect his vitals and. The blades ripped through his sleeves and into his flesh, shredding the tissue of his arms, the pain was indescribable and seemed to last forever. then the blades moved away and he opened his eyes to see at the top of the machine an orb of electricity was being formed and he heard Yggdrasill say "Spark wave!" he closed his eyes and waited to die, then he heard something he never expected or wanted to hear. A girl was screaming, he opened his eyes and saw Collette stuck in the middle of the orb of electricity, screaming as he watched in horror. As the orb faded, she slumped to the ground and he slowly raised himself up trying not to put any weight on his arms "Collette…" he started.

She turned to look at him "I know Lloyd; I was supposed to stay away, I just couldn't watch you died, I would've died too, Lloyd…now only one of us will…sorry Lloyd." Then she fell back and he caught her. He did not know if she was alive or dead and he did not really care, he now knew he had to defeat Yggdrasill. He stood up slowly and saw Sheena walking up next to him, she was limping and bloody but still wore a smile.

She looked at him "What do you want to do?" she asked.

He looked at her, his eyes vacant "Yggdrasill is a thing of light, can you summon Shadow? I think it's our last shot."

She paused then nodded "Yeah, but I'm low on energy, it will take a couple of minutes, and can you do that?"

Lloyd looked a bit nervous but nodded "Just do it as fast as you can."

She nodded "Count on it."

Lloyd drew his swords and moved forward, moving sluggishly, Yggdrasill seemed almost amused, Lloyd looked back to see Sheena focusing on a hand sing she had formed, eyes closed lightly. The last two arms jabbed out at Lloyd and Lloyd did the only thing he could, dodge and knock away the arms when they tried to get to him from the side. However, exhaustion was getting the better of him and the pain in his arms increased every time he moved them, and each time the blades swung past they were a bit closer. Finally, Yggdrasill made one more swipe, Lloyd could not get out of the way fast enough, and it caught his leg, and knocked him down.

Just as he hit the ground, he saw Sheena moved her hands and spoke "I summon thee, come envoy from the dark abyss! Shadow!" The ethereal summon spirit appeared and a huge dark sphere engulfed Yggdrasill's machine and then exploded outward silently, before the summon spirit faded away.

The machine was a heap of mangled metal, the glass that covered Yggdrasill was shattered, pieces of it embedded in his skin, yet he was somehow still conscious, he spoke slowly "You may have stopped but no one can do anything if there is no one alive to do it." A spot opened in the middle of the machine and Yggdrasill spoke "Flame Lance!" but the attack that was aimed at Lloyd was being fired from a nearly destroyed machine, and the spout of fire launched in a strange angle directly at Sheena. She only had time to scream then it hit her, the fire did not stick but when the flames disappeared, every inch of her exposed skin was burned seriously, she stood for a few seconds then she fell to the ground, and he was the last one left.

Lloyd looked around, completely alone, he had to do something, he looked around slowly until he saw the orange coat of Raine, he started to walk but pain shot through his legs, and he fell to his knees. "I guess I have to crawl," he said to no one in particular, as he moved towards Raine he searched through his pockets until he found what he was looking for, he pulled out of two different pockets one apple gel and one pineapple gel. As he reached Raine's side, he smashed the two gels in his hands and said "Hope that's enough to do what you have to Raine, if it's not then this is all over." After that exhaustion got the best of him and he felt himself falling, then everything went black.

A/N: Hope you guys liked my battle chapter, I know I'm not great at them, but this is what I got.


	4. Chapter 4

I do not own ToS in any way, shape, or form, but I do now own Ansel and Fenson.

Chapter 4

Darkness. Darkness and pain. Those were the only things he knew, and it was terrible pain. Worse, he did not know where the pain was coming from and if it was ever going to stop. It could have been hours or seconds, and he was sure he was dying, just as he thought this, the pain began to lessen, and it continued to lessen. What he guessed was a few minutes later the pain was completely gone. Then the darkness started to leave, replaced by light, and now…sound, muffled, unrecognizable voices. Finally, voices began to come clearer and he recognized a couple of them as his friends. Then his eyes cracked open and everything was a colorful blur "He's waking up," he heard what he though was Raine say, then a lot of whispers and silence. He opened his eyes a bit more the next time getting used to the light, then as things got into focus he was looking straight up at the green glow above the platform, when he looked to the right he saw that Raine, Genis, Zelos, Presea, Regal and (his heart beat fast) Collette were all looking at him smiling. He smiled weakly and pushed himself on his elbow, up slowly, Raine put a hand quickly on his chest, but he gave her a look and he smiled, she raised an eyebrow suspiciously but moved her hand away. "How long was I out?" he said slowly.

Raine replied "About twenty minutes, I'm glad you still had those two gels without them it would've been a few hours before I could've done anything."

Lloyd laughed, "Then I'm glad I had them too. Collette how are you feeling?"

She smiled widely "I'm fine Lloyd, Mithos' attack hurt a lot but that's it, Raine revived me first."

Lloyd grinned "Good," he looked at the others "Zelos, Regal, Presea, Genis, how are all of you?" the others quickly replied that they were fine, that Raine had taken care of them Lloyd nodded as each of his friends replied. Then he noticed something and looked around quickly then looked at Raine "Hey, where's Sheena?" the smiles disappeared from faces and Raine was first to speak looking down.

Her eyes closed "Sheena was actually hurt most out of all of us…by far. I would have treated her sooner if I had known, Zelos, Genis, bring her over here." Zelos and Genis quickly left and were gone for a few seconds then walked back. In between them, they carried a makeshift stretcher and as everyone back up a little ways, they set down the stretcher. Sheena was still conscious and obviously aware of her surroundings but her breathing was ragged and uneven, and Lloyd noticed that the only thing keeping her breathing was a continuous spell over her chest, which was casting an aura over the rest of her body. He noticed too that her skin was still burned in some places and that almost all parts of her clothes were noticeably wet with blood.

She turned to look at him and gave him a weak smile, "How did I do Lloyd?"

Lloyd tried to smile back "You did great Sheena, but…" his voice cracked, he swallowed and continued "how did this happen?"

Sheena looked away, staring upward before she spoke "I didn't tell you, summoning takes a bunch of energy, after I summoned Shadow it felt like breathing was like sprinting a mile, and then when he hit me with that flame spell and that was…well you know."

Lloyd was shocked "Well then why did you say you would summon Shadow if you knew it would leave you so exhausted?"

Now she laughed, coughing, and looked at him again "It was the only way to do it, both you and I know that." Lloyd open his mouth and she laughed again as he said nothing. He sat up a bit more feeling he had a bit more energy and looked at Raine "Will she be okay?" there was a long pause, with Raine looking to the side, Lloyd staring at her intensely, and Sheena still looking straight up.

Raine finally said, "Part of it is how much energy we have, and how much she will need. The rest is her fight."

Lloyd looked over and rested a hand on Sheena's shoulder, she turned to look at him "Fight hard," he said simply.

She winked "Always do." Lloyd held a hand up, and Zelos pulled him slowly to his feet, where Lloyd got his balance before letting go of Zelos.

He was about to say that they move back to the ground to return the Great Seed when Genis' voice interrupted his thoughts "Lloyd, look," the group moved over to where Genis stared at where Mithos originally stood.

Now he stood there again in an ethereal form, his shape fading in and out the Cruxis Crystal that was inside him was now in the center of his chest, Collette was the first to speak as they all stared "Mithos is…"

Presea answered, "It's just like Alicia. Mithos shall continue to live as long as the Cruxis Crystal exists."

Then the ghost of Mithos spoke "And eventually I will be taken over by the crystal."

Lloyd was unsure of what to do "Mithos," he said slowly.

"I'm tired of playing the game of good and evil," Mithos interrupted "Hurry up and destroy the crystal, if you don't Derris Kharlan will continue to drift away."

Lloyd hesitated and tried again "Mithos—

But Mithos interrupted again "Do it now! Before I too, am no longer myself."

Lloyd hesitated again, but Genis' voice surprised him "Lloyd please help him. Let him die while he is still himself."

Lloyd hesitated one more time then said "Alright," and slowly drew one of his swords and walked forward.

As he did Mithos spoke his last words "Farewell my shadow, you who stood at the end of the path I chose not to follow. I wanted a world my own world so I don't regret my choice, I would make the same choice all over again. I will continue to choose this path." Then Lloyd swung his sword and the crystal was no more, the fragments circled around Lloyd briefly, then disappeared.

Lloyd breathed a heavy, sad sigh "You could've…you could've lived with us in our world. Damn it." As he stopped speaking his two exspheres began to glow blue and red, then they floated out in front of him and after a short flash, the blades his two fathers had given him were there in front of him.

They were still for a second, then moved closer to each other and just as their blades touched they disappeared and the brilliant Eternal Sword took their place and Origin's voice came from the sword "The old master of the pact is no more, what does the new master of the pact ask of this sword?"

Lloyd did not need to be told, "Restore the true form of our true world."

On the ground, it was night and out of the ruins of the Tower of Salvation a glorious beam of energy appeared and spread all along the land and over the sky, mana flowed to the center. The next place the group found themselves was at the bottom of the mountains outside Meltokio. Lloyd looked around quickly and found that everyone was still right with him "Are we back?" Lloyd said to himself, as he spoke the earth around them shook briefly, and they all braced themselves "What's going on?" Lloyd shouted looking around. The quaking stopped quickly and in colored flashes of mana all of the summon spirits appeared in a circle around them.

Sheena looked up from her stretcher "What are you all doing?" she said looking around at all of the summons.

Then Origin's voice came again, causing everyone to look skyward "Your wish is granted… but there is no link, without a link the land will die."

"What are you talking about?" Sheena shouted from her stretcher.

Origin's voice answered, "The world was originally separated into two to prevent its destruction. If it returns to its true, form the world lacks the mana to support itself. The land…is dying."

Lloyd threw up his hands "I don't need to know why it's dying. What do we need to do to stop it?"

Origin's voice answered quickly, "Support the two worlds by linking them with the Giant Tree. That is the only way to stop the destruction of the land."

Sheena nodded slowly "We need to awaken the Giant Kharlan Tree right?"

Lloyd nodded looking back at her "I get it!"

Sheena gave one last smile "Lloyd, quickly! You have to bathe the Great Seed in the mana of Derris-Kharlan before Derris-Kharlan disappears."

Lloyd nodded and smiled back, then turned and raised the Eternal Sword over his head "Alright then, I'm counting on you Eternal Sword."

Then Origin's voice continued yet again "Derris Kharlan is already at the edge of the gravitational field, not even Yggdrasill…Mithos could have stopped this from happening. Do you still intend to try?"

Lloyd did not hesitate "Yeah."

Origin's voice gave one more warning "Even strengthened by your exsphere, it is likely that your body will not withstand the forces, are you certain of your decision?"

Lloyd nodded "I said I'm doing it, so I'm doing it, it's not like we have a choice."

There was a short pause then the voice said "Very well." Mana began to appear from the sky coming from Derris-Kharlan, circling like halos of light, and for a second everyone saw the Great Seed, high above the land with mana circling around it. Then the mana disappeared and the Great Seed was hidden from view again, then the Eternal Sword, which Lloyd was holding, faded and disappeared.

Lloyd shouted in frustration "It's not working, the mana is being deflected!"

Then Collette said in a sad voice "The Great Seed is…already dead."

Lloyd looked at the ground, then saw his exsphere begin to glow and the mana that kept it working began floating skyward and Lloyd realized what was happening and quickly reached out a hand "Wait, don't go! Please! Wake up!" Lloyd clenched his fists and braced himself where he stood then in an instant an enormous pair of angelic wings appeared on his back and he launched himself skyward, he flew high until he was above the Great Seed and could see Derris-Kharlan a few seconds later Collette appeared next to him, here wings out as well grabbing onto his arm she looked up before looking back at Lloyd "It looks like Derris-Kharlan stopped moving away."

Lloyd nodded, but then shrugged "Yeah but why? The Eternal Sword is gone." The moment those words left his mouth the enormous multi-colored broad sword appeared in front of them. Lloyd reached out a hand and took the hilt slowly, almost not sure if it was real "The Eternal Sword," he said, feeling out of breath.

Next to him Collette gave a relieved sigh "Thank Goodness!" she said.

Lloyd took a deep breath to steady himself then said "this is my final wish Eternal Sword."

Collette continued for him "Please…awaken the Great Seed."

As nothing happened "I beg you…please wake up."

Collette said finally in a trembling voice "Please!" then with both his and Collette's hands on the hilt he raised it above his head briefly then swung it down "Rise Giant Kharlan Tree!" They watched as a single bit of mana appeared from the sword's tip and fell down to the Great Seed, the Seed glowed for a second then it as well began to descend, Lloyd looked at Collette and nodded and they began to follow it down.

As they made it close to the ground they saw a brilliant flash of light and had to shield their eyes for a few second then they quickly moved down to the bottom at the ruins of the Tower of Salvation and as they landed they saw an older and incredibly beautiful woman holding a staff and dressed like an elf walking towards them.

She stopped and looked at them for a few seconds before saying in a soothing and calm voice "I am Martel, and also the incarnation of the Great Seed itself. Lloyd your hope as well as those of many others resurrected me."

Lloyd took a step back in surprised "So you're Mithos' sister?!"

She smiled and shook her head "No, Mithos' sister Martel is one of the many souls within me. I am Mana and I am the Giant Tree. I am a symbol of the many lives sacrificed to the Great Seed. I am the new spirit born to accompany the Giant Tree. And now the Seed has awakened anew along with me." As she finished behind her the two saw the tree appear from the ground and in a matter of seconds grow to the biggest tree they had ever seen it was easily 500 feet tall, probably taller, with the base trunk probably fifty feet thick, and as Lloyd looked back he saw that it's shadow stretched for at least a mile.

He took a step back, dumbstruck "This is the Giant Kharlan Tree?!"

Collette sounded just as mystified as she looked at the tree "It's so beautiful and so grand."

Mana then spoke again "This is the future form of the Giant Tree: right now it is only a small seedling. In its current state the tree will wither and die."

This instantly snapped Lloyd out of his awe "Well then, how do we protect it?" he demanded.

Mana answered calmly "You must provide the tree with love and adoration. As these conditions are met, I shall always protect the seedling."

Lloyd nodded "I promise! If the tree starts to with, I'll make sure, we won't let it die!"

Mana nodded then said "Then, Lloyd on behalf of all living things I want you to give this tree a new name, as proof of the pact."

Lloyd was confused "What?" he said, wanting an explanation.

Mana gave one "The Giant Kharlan Tree was placed here by the elves when they first came, as a guardian to watch over and protect them. This newly reborn tree protects elves, humans, and the lives of all those caught in between, therefore the tree requires a new name."

Lloyd looked over at Collette again, who smiled and said "Lloyd pick a name for us. A name for everyone's tree."

Lloyd smiled then looked back at the tree "So this tree is the link that connects the world," he said "Okay, I got it! This tree's name is…Anna."

Mana nodded "So it will be, I shall protect this tree forever more." Then she raised her staff and disappeared in a light that slowly consumed her body, until she was gone, and the Giant Tree receded to its current form.

Lloyd looked behind him and then back at Collette "Come on, we need to get back to the group, we need to get Sheena back to Meltokio."

Collette nodded quickly "Yeah lets go." They both released their wings and flew back quickly, reaching the mountains in a matter of minutes, as they circled down they saw that Raine was back working on Sheena and Genis was laying down. Lloyd gave Collette a look that said 'bad, very bad,' he dove immediately and Collette followed at a slower pace. Lloyd rolled as he hit the ground, only getting himself dusty, not injuring himself and ran to the spot where everyone was gathered "What's going on?" he said as he reached the spot.

Raine looked up from where she crouched over Sheena, who he could tell was now unconscious, Raine looked very worried and said slowly "Sheena went into cardiac arrest only several seconds after you left, she's not doing to good right now and blood loss has given her a fever."

"What?!" Lloyd shouted "Well what all are you doing?"

Raine looked back down at Sheena "I'm keeping her heart pumping and she is breathing, but I've made it so only her absolutely necessary organs have enough blood to them it takes less energy and I've already used all of mine and Genis just gave me most of the energy he has and that's already a third gone."

Lloyd looked like he was about to fall over, but then he got very calm "Raine if we all gave you what energy we had, how long could you keep this up?"

Raine didn't look up, but after a few seconds, said "Twenty minutes, maybe, after that she wouldn't be alive for more than five without me."

Lloyd looked at Zelos "On the Rheiards how fast could we get to the gates of Meltokio?"

Zelos shrugged, and then said "Five minutes is a good guess, but the palace is the only place that would have healers to do something like this, and in the middle of the night the king won't be happy."

Lloyd shook his head "If you think I care, I don't."

Zelos raised an eyebrow, and then nodded"Point taken."

Lloyd looked at Raine "What do we need to do to give you our energy?"

Raine help up a hand "Just place your palm on mine, one at a time, I'll do the rest, and tell you when to let go." Lloyd nodded and stepped forward, everyone else lined up behind him, he rested his hand on Raines' and felt his energy drain out, then let go and the five others followed suit. When they were done Zelos and Lloyd moved to the ends of the stretcher and as they stood up, so did Raine, they walked to the edge of the valley where the Rheiards had been left Raine got on the first one and Zelos and Lloyd carefully put Sheena on the back of it.

"Okay," Lloyd said "I'm going to use the wings that the Eternal Sword gave me to follow right behind Raine; the rest of you can pair up on the Rheiards." The others nodded and quickly got onto the other Rheiards, Collette carrying Genis who was asleep from exhaustion and in the next thirty seconds they were in the air.

Meltokio was already prominent on the horizon when they got above the mountains and they reached the edge of the city very quickly as they landed Zelos jumped from his Rheiard and shouted at the lone guard "Hey, get a stretcher out here, like two minutes ago!"

The guards who looked like he had been sleeping standing up were startled but when he saw who it was nodded quickly "R-Right away Chosen," and with that he disappeared inside.

Lloyd asked Raine as they landed "How long?"

"Ten minutes," she replied solemnly. The guard reappeared a few seconds later with another in two and they were carrying a stretcher between them, Zelos led them over quickly and Lloyd and Zelos carefully moved Sheena over to the stretcher, Raine looked at Lloyd sadly "I know you want to run, but if you do the spell will not be as effective and will run out twice as fast."

Lloyd gritted his teeth, then said "We'll walk fast," he and Zelos relieved the two guards and began a slow jog through the city, Raine moved at the same speed but stayed ahead a little ways so if they sped up she didn't fall behind.

The others were right behind, as they reached the palace gates the one guard stepped in front of the door "No one is allowed in at night, unless it is very urgent."

"It is, we've got a severely wounded person here who is a friend of the king's," Zelos said.

The guard laughed "No urgent as in the city is about to be destroyed or invade." Lloyd turned his head from where he stood at the back of the stretcher and beckoned to Collette and she came up and took it from him.

In the next two seconds Lloyd had moved up to the guard picked him up by the scruff of his tunic, a few inches off the ground and slammed him against the wall "Destroyed or invaded might be urgent for the king," he said, his voice filled with venom "but I'm pretty sure the words gutted, flayed, castrated and anything else I can think of are pretty urgent for you, so if you don't let us in now, you can expect all of those."

The guards eyes had grown wide and he swallowed slowly hesitating. Lloyd turned to look at Raine "How long?!" he shouted.

"Three minutes…maybe."

Lloyd turned again "NOW!" he yelled, now holding the man with one hand and unsheathed one of his swords.

The man gave in "Okay," he said shakily, Lloyd dropped him and he opened the door.

They moved in and Zelos called to a passing maid "Take us to the Master Healer's quarters please."

She hesitated then said "He will be asleep but I will see of he will take you." They moved quickly into the bottom of the castle to a large door.

The maid knocked several times and an old man's voice called from inside, obviously irritated "What is it?"

The maid quickly answered "I am sorry my Lord, there is a group here, one of them is apparently in very bad shape, the Chosen is with them, so is the boy who rescued Princess Hilda."

Lloyd came close to the door "Please Master Healer in less than ten minutes she will be dead if we can't get help, please," his voice was trembling.

Raine looked up "One minute," she said. There was a pause that really was only ten seconds felt like that whole last minute.

Then the door opened and the voice said "bring her in, set her on the bed, quickly!" Zelos and Lloyd moved in quickly and the old man grabbed a staff from the corner of his room as Zelos and Lloyd moved Sheena to the bed the man placed his staff over her chest and muttered a quick incantation and a rune circle appeared them onto after they appeared Raine waved her hand dispelling her continuous spell and stumbled to a chair and took a few long breaths. The healer worked the staff over her whole body, frowning as he went "I see what you did, good idea but…this one of the worst situations I've ever seen."

There was a long pause and Lloyd asked "Will you be able to save her?"

The healer glanced at Lloyd out of the corner of his eye "I will only be able to do so much, the library here has enough healing information for all spells but I can only do so much, I've set this rune that is keeping her heart beating and it will disappear once her heart starts beating an on its own and I have enough power by myself to keep that running for a few months. And I can repair the burns mostly, there will be scars in the bad places but they will go away given time, her insides are what worry me, apparently whatever you were fighting damaged your insides and outsides, you however didn't notice the inside damage, and I can tell by now any damage that any of you have," he said pointing at the seven others "isn't serious, her on the other hand," he looked back at Sheena "it's a miracle she's still alive, there isn't a single organ in her that isn't damaged, some seriously, with the one exception of her brain, and the fever is going to have to break before I can do much of anything with her other organs, so we'll just have to hope she hangs on until then, the next 48 hours will decide everything." He looked over the group again then said "I need to work now, maid," he said calling to the maid that still stood outside "Find rooms for them, tell His Majesty this was my decision completely, and the moment the sun is visible send messages to the other healers in the city." The maid nodded and bowed and the seven walked out into the hall where Lloyd immediately sat down.

"I'm staying here."

The maid looked at the healer who said "As long as he doesn't bother me."

Raine looked at him and started to say "Lloyd I—

"I'm staying here," he repeated giving her a look.

Raine sighed and was about to walk away when Collette appeared and sat down next to Lloyd "I'll stay here for the rest of the night too." Raine started to object again but was interrupted again "It's okay Professor, I'm just going to go sleep but I want Lloyd to have some company."

Lloyd smiled "Thanks Collette."

She smiled back "You're welcome." Raine gave them a disapproving look, everyone else said good-bye and then they were all led away by the maid.

Collette was out like a light in less than ten minutes, after they left but Lloyd stayed awake thinking. For the next hour he could hear the healer moving around but then that stopped too, and he was left with his thoughts, the one that hurt the most was what if she never woke up, he hadn't told her how he felt and he wasn't sure what he would do if that happened, that thought drove him crazy for a few hours but then to counter that he thought about what they would do when she woke up, and finally he too fell asleep just as light was starting to appear in the sky.

He awoke with a start what he guessed was five hours later when the healer opened his door and beckoned to him he stood up "What is it?" the healer moved aside to let him walk in.

"The other healers should be arriving soon; we need to move her to another room so there is enough room for all of us to work."

Lloyd nodded and helped the old man move her onto the stretcher "How is she?" he asked at one point.

"Better," the old man answered "but not out of the woods by a long shot, her fever has gone down, but it's still there and that means I can't do much more than slow it down." Lloyd nodded again and as they moved out of the room he nudged Collette with a foot, and she quickly woke up and began to follow them they moved to the mid-levels of the palace to a large open room where they get Sheena on an exam table.

Lloyd looked around the room "What is this room?"

The healer answered "It is actually a science lab, magicians use it and so do doctors when they are performing a new type of surgery." Lloyd looked a bit confused but nodded "You'll need to leave soon; you can wait outside again if you like, but the others and I need to be where we can concentrate completely, without any distractions," the healer said.

"Yeah alright," Lloyd said, know he was right, he picked up the stretcher and as Collette walked in he pushed her back out gently, and then got of the way as five middle-aged men in a similar garb to the master healer's walked in, he quickly moved out and closed the door quietly. It was roughly 8:30 a.m. when the healers began to work and time dragged out, a maid brought them lunch and Zelos and Genis both showed up to talk to them briefly before disappearing again. They couldn't hear or see anything in the room and although Collette talked to him some of the time Lloyd was intent on burning a hole in the wall where he was starting.

Soon the afternoon dragged into evening and again a maid brought them both something to eat and as it continued on and it was dark outside Collette finally stood up "I'm sorry Lloyd, but I don't know if I can stay her the night again."

Lloyd waved a hand and smiled "Don't say sorry you goof, I'm glad you were here with me all day, and I didn't expect you to stay that long, it was nice to have you here, go on, it's not a problem."

Collette smiled and blushed lightly "Thanks Lloyd, I'll see you tomorrow," she said and walked away, giving him a wave. He waved good-bye then went back to looking at the door. The hours dragged pass at a snail's pace and for the first time he was able to hear voices from inside but he couldn't tell what they were saying, and after having been awake for nearly sixty hours, with five hours of sleep during that entire time, he began to doze off, not being able to stop himself, for the next four hours he drifted in and out of consciousness. At midnight Lloyd was asleep with one eye half open when the door started to open, he was immediately awake, the old healer walked out leaving the door open, and waited as Lloyd slowly rose to his feet "How did it go?" Lloyd asked, still rubbing sleep from his eyes.

For the first time the healer smiled "Well that was one of the longest jobs I've ever done, and just to let you know three of the four healers, used all of their energy and I used half of mine."

Lloyd nodded "Well you have the most gratitude I can ever give you…so how is she?"

The healer looked happy "She is doing fine, the fever is gone, that was the first thing we stopped, and although the more complex ones took quite awhile, and we did almost lose her once, but we were able to repair all of them to the best of our ability, and although they will have to do some repairing on their own, they will all function correctly, her heart is beating normally as well, and shows no signs of problems, she's asleep, there's a chance she'll be out for a few days, she's been through a lot. But you may stay in that room if you like, I'll even ask the king to have a sleeping mat brought in for you, and I'll be checking her daily until she wakes up."

Lloyd looked like he may have been close to crying "Thanks," he said after a long pause "Thanks a lot."

The healer smiled "It is what I do; I'll have a maid bring you a sleeping mat." The healer extended his hand and Lloyd shook it firmly said thank you again, in the most sincere voice he could manage, the healer nodded again and walked away. Lloyd entered the room quickly, it was dark and he waited for his eyes to adjust, not wanting to turn on the lights. Sheena was asleep on the bed in the middle, a thin blanket covering her almost completely, leaving only her head visible, she was smiling. Lloyd walked up next to her and just stood there, he was relieved, incredibly relieved, that she was going to be alright, but at he same time he wished she was awake, but he knew that he could wait and he would.

A maid showed up about fifteen minutes later with a mat, blanket and pillow. He laid down quickly a little ways away, and until he fell asleep about an hour later he lay on his side and watched Sheena. When he woke up the next morning she was still asleep and he asked for a chair to be brought to the room. When a maid brought it he moved next to her and sat down, several hours passed and the Master Healer appeared around noon and after checking her said "She's probably not going to wake up until tomorrow from what I can see, you've been waiting and watching around her for almost half a week, some of your friends are going to be leaving soon from what I have heard." Lloyd raised his eyebrows at hearing this "You should go and say good-bye," the healer said, smiling softly "if she wakes up, you'll be the first to know."

Lloyd thought about it then nodded to himself and stood up "Yeah, I think I will thanks." The healer nodded and stepped to the side as Lloyd walked out into the hallway. He recognized the spot in the castle and quickly navigated to the great hall. When he got there all six of the others were there, and all but Zelos were in their traveling clothes and carrying what little possessions they had on their backs.

As Lloyd walked up, the group noticed and smiled, Zelos commented "Ah, back to society I see."

Lloyd rolled his eyes as Zelos chuckled, then looked at the others "Where are all of you headed off to?"

Regal was the first to answer "I am going back to Altamira, the Lorenzo Company is going to become the exact opposite of what it is now, I will be taking over fully as President, with the first order being the destruction of the Toize Valley Mine, which I will oversee personally."

Presea followed quickly "I am going to go with him, and assist any way I can, and it seems that with the end of Cruxis, time has started to flow again for me. It is nearly an unfamiliar feeling, but I am glad."

Lloyd nodded and grinned "That's great Presea, good to know the effects are finally gone, and Regal I couldn't think of anyone better to change the world for the better." Regal gave a rare smile and walked forward to shake Lloyd's hand, Lloyd didn't flinch but when he let go he shook his hand several times to get the feeling back. Presea didn't say anything when she walked forward but simply curtsied and gave a small wave to which Lloyd bowed his head slightly, and waved back as she started to leave with Regal, everyone called good-bye and Zelos shouted "Come and visit,' to which Regal replied over his shoulder "We will," then they disappeared out the door.

Lloyd then turned to the last three "So…I guess all good things must come to an end huh?" he said.

Raine and Collette nodded and Genis said "Yeah I guess so."

"So what are you two going to do?" he asked looking at the Sage siblings.

Raine smiled "Well we have another long journey ahead of us," she said.

"Should be just as hard too," Genis added.

Raine nodded in agreement "Yes, we are going to travel around this new world and try to teach as many people as we can that half-elves are no different then anyone else."

Lloyd was surprised to hear this, but glad at the same time "That should be a difficult journey, but I think you will be able to do it, you were right Raine people will change they have to."

Raine smiled "Thank you Lloyd."

He nodded "So what about your home?"

Genis shrugged "We'll always have a home in Iselia we will go back there when we get tired."

Lloyd nodded "I see…well then."

Genis came forward and shook Lloyd's hand "I'll see you on the roads of the new world, Lloyd."

Lloyd smiled "See you there."

Raine only patted Lloyd on the shoulder a few times before saying "Keep studying Lloyd."

Lloyd heaved a sigh but nodded slowly "Alright Professor." Again everyone said good-bye and Genis and Raine left the palace giving one last wave behind them. Now it was just Zelos, Lloyd and Collette "Where are you headed Collette? Back to Iselia?"

She nodded "Yes, sorry Lloyd I want to be able to see my father and grandmother again, so they know I'm okay and since Professor Sage will be gone for awhile I think I might teach the kids in Iselia."

Lloyd chuckled softly "Again Collette, don't be sorry, that is great you'd be a great teacher I bet and besides I'll be in Iselia some of the time. It's not like this is the last time I'll see you. Go on you'll do great."

Collette smiled and blushed lightly "Thanks Lloyd and…thanks too for showing me a different…better way to make a peaceful world."

Lloyd smiled "It was all for your sake Collette, and I probably couldn't have done it without you. I'll see you soon." Collette nodded again tears forming on the edges of her eyes, Lloyd quickly brushed them away "No crying all that was is now how it should've been, I'll see you soon." She smiled and threw her arms around him in a tight hug, he hugged her back and she held on for nearly a minute before turning and walking out, looking behind her the whole time.

When Lloyd turned around Zelos was grinning at him then gave him the thumbs up, Lloyd rolled his eyes "So what have you been doing this whole time?" he asked.

Zelos shrugged "Anything I can, already everyone knows about the other continents and what the Pope was doing over there has gotten around, but since the Church of Martel is still here, I still have a large amount of power. I even asked the king to send an emissary of peace to Iselia."

Lloyd was impressed "Thanks Zelos, who'd you, say he should send?"

"Actually I told him to send Kate, you know the Pope's daughter?"

He was even more impressed now "Really how'd he take it?"

Zelos smiled "Bad at first, but I ended up telling him about Raine and Genis, with their permission of course and after that he couldn't say no, and I think it's a good way to start Raine and Genis' quest."

Lloyd nodded in agreement "Well I can't believe I'm saying this but, nice job Zelos."

Zelos laughed "I do what I can, by the way how's Sheena doing?"

Lloyd smiled widely "Great she's asleep at the moment but the healer says she'll probably wake up some time tomorrow, and that she'll have quite a bit of resting to do before she's back to herself but other than that she's fine…hey you called her her real name and not one of your made up ones…uh."

Zelos laughed "Yeah I know I did I know how you feel about her man, envious? Darn right I am but if I know the feeling its mutual, I stay out of it."

That caught Lloyd off guard he threw an incredulous look at Zelos "Huh?! The feeling is mutual!"

Zelos laughed hard at this "Come on man you'd have to blind and stupid to not realize she's got a thing for you."

Lloyd relaxed and nodded, "Yeah but I always thought she just liked me as a good friend."

Zelos shook his head, still grinning "Nope I'm pretty good at noticing things…then I've had a lot of experience in this field…yeah she's pretty much head over heels for you, now we'll just see who fesses up first." He patted him on the back and then walked away, whistling cheerfully.

Lloyd did a quick check of Sheena and finding her still in a very deep sleep decided to find Zelos and for once in a long time take a day off. He found him quickly and Zelos was happy to join him. It was just past noon and although the streets were crowded Zelos was able to lead them through the alleys and side streets to avoid the crowded spots, they didn't do much except walk and talk, and Zelos pointed out all the girls he had dated, which seemed to be over half the women in the city. After becoming increasingly bored Zelos agreed to go to the coliseum and since they didn't have enough money couldn't get into any of the contests zelos asked if they could simply join in the training spars which no one objected to. It was no surprise that both of them easily defeated every single warrior or soldier who came at them and after a few hours of fighting the soldiers asked them if they could all fight them at once and Zelos and Lloyd agreed. It was about fifteen of the soldiers against them, some in metal armor, most in leather, all Lloyd and Zelos had were three swords between them and Zelos using his star shield and Lloyd using his gauntlets. The fifteen men weren't really organized and using a variety of weapons, including one man using a flail, and another using a war mace. They attacked in a somewhat haphazard manner and three were disabled in about ten seconds, by the two swordsmen. Several of the other fighters took greater care in their attacks but then when they did only lasted a few seconds before being disarmed and knocked down.

It only took about five minutes for the filed to be knocked down to two, both men had come in later and neither Zelos nor Lloyd had fought them in single combat, both were wearing chain mail, one was using is a rapier, the other was carrying the biggest mace either of them had seen.

Lloyd looked at Zelos "Which one you want?"

Zelos shrugged "I think I'll take the rapier user, he has a similar fighting style to me, should be fun."

Lloyd replied "Sounds good to me."

They walked forward and one of the men said "You two are pretty impressive fighters."

Lloyd smiled "Thanks, apparently so are both of you."

Then the other man said "Shall we see who's better?"

Zelos nodded "Lets." Zelos and Lloyd attacked simultaneously and the two men blocked effortlessly and countered. On Lloyd's side he realized after about two swings that it would be impossible to overpower the huge war mace and that the only way to beat him would be to disarm him or force him to the ground and make him yield. He decided to go with disarming him and began to move back and forth from his range of attack but when he swung the mace Lloyd would dart out of the way, and it would only be wasted energy. Zelos was fighting the other swordsman in a very equal fight both were using the graceful style of attacking, the swordsman seemed to be the more powerful of the two but zelos was noticeably the more graceful and agile, as he danced around the swordsman who struck out at the red haired warrior when he could. Lloyd now had the warrior he was facing moving slowly, but he was slowing down as well, and knew if he didn't try to disarm the man soon he wouldn't be able to, he used the same tactic twice more then when the man hesitated before raising his mace again Lloyd struck the metal gauntlets he was wearing, jarring his hands and the mace fell from his hands, an instant later Lloyd flicked his father's sword up to the man's throat, he raised his hands "I yield."

Lloyd lowered his sword and the man picked up his mace before extending a hand, Lloyd gripped it firmly and said "It was a good fight."

The man smiled "Thank you, that was indeed a good fight, shall we see end of the other one?" Lloyd nodded and they turned to see Zelos and the swordsman still fighting. Zelos was still running circles around the swordsman and it was obvious that he was frustrated, when Zelos made one more jump the swordsman quickly spun and punch him dead in the face, with a metal gauntlet, and with zelos stunned knocked the sword from his hand and knocked Zelos to the ground.

Zelos yielded and the swordsman hauled him to his feet. "Try to be more random," the swordsman said "after so long I knew what you would do before you did that's how I hit you."

Zelos nodded, rubbing his jaw "Thanks for the tip."

Lloyd and the other warrior quickly joined them, Lloyd wearing a smug smile looking at Zelos, who promptly said "Lloyd, shut up!"

Lloyd laughed but didn't say anything the other warrior then joined the swordsman and turned to the two young fighters "You two are the first ones from this area to ever hold your own against us, let alone beat one of us," said the swordsman.

The mace fighter then spoke up "You," he said pointing at Lloyd "are the first person to beat me in single combat. My name is Ansil and from now on you can have my help whenever you need it."

The swordsman then introduced himself "I am Fenson and although you did not beat me you are the person to stand against me the longest, and you have the same standing offer from me."

Having made two more comrades Lloyd and Zelos both introduced themselves and they talked for a few minutes before Lloyd said "We need to get back to the palace, a friend of ours is recovering there." The two men departed and Zelos and Lloyd moved back to the palace at a leisurely pace. They went inside and Lloyd did a quick check of Sheena to see she was still asleep and went back to Zelos they decided to eat in the palace, they ate and talked and laughed about memories from the journey, after they finished they talked for awhile until the sun had gone down and Zelos dismissed himself to head back to his estate, and Lloyd walked back to the same room, he stood next to Sheena for a few minutes and could tell that she was dreaming, and he knew enough to know that she would probably be waking up soon he quickly asked for someone to bring him several cups of coffee and when they arrived he moved his chair next to the bed and sipped at one o the cups promising himself, that he would stay awake until she woke up.

It was a few hours after midnight and he was dozing lightly when he heard a yawn and was instantly alert. Sheena was stretching her arms above her head, then she let them fall down by her sides and opened her eyes, she saw Lloyd and smiled, he smiled back and then looked around the room for a few seconds "Where are we?" she asked.

"In the palace in Meltokio, you've been unconscious for almost a week."

Sheena nodded slowly "I see, have you been watching over me the whole time?"

Lloyd blushed lightly, hoping she wouldn't notice in the dark, but nodded "Most of the time yeah, all of the others have left the city, except for Zelos of course. Collette went back to Iselia, Regal and Presea went to Altamira and Genis and Raine have gone on a journey for half elves."

Sheena looked sad "Oh, sorry I didn't get to see them off."

Lloyd smiled "I told them good-bye for you."

There was a pause and Sheena asked "How long have you been sitting there?"

Lloyd thought for a second and then said "I think for maybe six hours."

Sheena nodded "Thanks for staying Lloyd."

Lloyd grinned widely "You're very welcome Sheena, I felt bad for leaving you when you were wounded, I had to stay with you, and you're my best friend."

Sheena smiled and blushed "So when will they let me out here?"

Lloyd shrugged "The healer told me he will have to check to make sure you are all okay, and you'll have to get your energy back, but that's all, and knowing you you should get it back pretty quickly."

Sheena nodded "Well if someone yells at me I don't care," she said and slowly slipped out of the covers, moving slow to save energy.

Seeing as how she was only in lingerie, Lloyd quickly looked away and said "You want me to leave?"

Sheena didn't seem to concerned "No just stay turned around, I'll tell you when it's okay." Lloyd nodded to himself and stayed turned around, a few minutes later, Sheena gave him the word and he turned around, she was back sitting on the bed, hugging her knees to her chest, she was wearing her pajama clothes that he had seen her in at Heimdall, unfortunately she had noticed the scars on her arms and legs and almost looked on the verge of tears.

Lloyd quickly went up to her and rested a hand on her arm "Hey don't worry about those, the healer told me that they will go away given time, besides I still think you look…beautiful."

Sheena gave him a somewhat surprised look, he could tell even in the dark that she was blushing furiously "Thanks Lloyd," she said in a small voice.

Lloyd smiled again and sat back down "Your welcome." His heart was already beating fast 'I don't think I can tell her right now, at night, alone together, bad idea, I'll wait until she is back on her feet.'

They talked a bit longer and Sheena yawned "I'm going back to sleep Lloyd."

Lloyd nodded "You want me to wake you when the healer comes in the morning?" Sheena nodded and rolled over on the mattress pulling the blanket over herself. She fell asleep quickly and Lloyd watched her sleeping form for a few minutes before walking to his mattress and lying down, he was asleep before his head hit the pillow.

When he woke up it was already late in the morning, Sheena was still asleep. He stood up slowly his joints cracking; he drank another cup of coffee and sat down again. A few hours later the healer walked in. Lloyd stood up.

"Any news?" he said.

Lloyd nodded excitedly "Yeah she woke up in the middle of the night, her and I talked she seemed fine, I'll wake her." He shook Sheena a few times, getting a groan the first time, but she slowly woke up the second time, and sat up slowly.

The healer smiled softly as he walked up to her, Sheena smiled back "Thank you," she said slowly "for saving my life."

The healer chuckled softly "No need to thank me too much, it is what I do. Now lay back." Sheena complied and the healer moved his staff back and forth over her whole body several times, his eyes scanning intensely. After looking over her he stepped back and nodded "Well it seems your friend was right, looks like you're all okay inside, don't do too much strenuous stuff for the next month or there about, and I'd like you to stay here for the next two days just in case."

Sheena looked a bit upset but nodded "Alright, better safe than sorry I guess…do I have to stay here for the time?"

The healer thought about it, then shook his head "No I'm sure the king will let you stay in the Scarlet Room, what about you?" he said turning to Lloyd.

He looked over at Sheena, who was sitting up now, she smiled at him "I'd like to have a room next to hers," he said, containing a blush.

The healer nodded "I'll make sure it happens, you'll have to stay here though for the next few hours, then you can go to the rooms." And with that he walked back out the door.

A/N: Way longer than the others I know, probably could've been two chapters but whatever. Next one will be really short.


	5. Chapter 5

I don't own ToS in any way, shape or form

Chapter 5- A Confession and Tying Up Loose Ends

For the next two hours, the two friends waited in the room, sharing stories from the journey and after they ran out of those stories, they started telling stories from their younger years and both could easily say by the end of those two hours they knew each other a lot better.

Finally the healer came in "I've gotten the king to give both of you rooms, neither are the Scarlet Room but they are very nice, if you are ready I'll lead you to the rooms." They both agreed and after Sheena gathered what other clothes she had and the healer led them through several hallways back to a corner of the palace, there were two rooms next to each other, the healer made sure they were okay and then gave them brief directions back to the Great Hall, then said good-bye and walked back down the hallway. Sheena waved to Lloyd and they both entered their rooms, they looked relatively the same with a huge bed a pair of chairs and a small table, Lloyd unhooked his swords and laid them on the table, then flopped down on the bed, he was dozing when a knock came to the door. He propped himself up on an elbow and shouted to the door "Come in," the door opened to let in Sheena.

She was wearing the kimono he was used to seeing her in without the ribbon on the back. "Hey," she said.

He smiled "You feeling better?"

She smiled back "Much thanks."

He sat up and she joined him sitting next to him on the bed. "Sorry," Lloyd said suddenly.

She gave him a questioning look "About what?"

He looked at his hands "I felt really bad for leaving, and then learning that ten seconds later you went into cardiac arrest."

He was surprised when he heard her laugh softly. "Well two things are wrong with you apologizing, one if you hadn't done what you did the world would be dying as we speak, and there would be a lot more lives lost than just you and me, and two from what you've told me it sounds like without you I would've died, if not for you."

There was a long pause and Lloyd let out a long sigh "I guess," Sheena leaned forward to look at his face which had a strange sorrowful look on it. "What's the matter?" she asked, trying the sweetest voice she could do. Another pause then Lloyd turned to look at her 'I'll do it now,' he thought 'God help me,' "Well," he began "when we first got you to the healers I actually wasn't that worried, because I thought that he would just be able to heal you back to normal rather quickly but as I learned that you were really in bad shape I got more worried then when they took you to surgery there were five healers working on you, I was scared, I mean really scared, terrified even, because the only thing I could think was that if you died, even in the first couple hours after the surgery was over, that if you didn't wake up, I wouldn't be able to tell you that I…" he turned to look straight at her "that I love you." He immediately looked away he could feel his face burning. Sheena had been listening intently the whole time and when he said that, she was genuinely surprised, and incredibly happy.

After a few minutes he was still turned the other way and she tentatively reached out a hand to touch his shoulder, he tensed when she did, then after a few more seconds he turned to face her, his face a mask of emotions. She kept her expression completely blank and finally said "Lloyd…I'm glad you finally understand," now he looked shocked "because I love you too, since the Lighting Temple, I tried to tell you so many times but it seemed like you were oblivious for most of it," she was already on the verge of tears "you have no idea how much I love you Lloyd, and how happy I am that you finally saw." Not being able to contain herself, she pulled the shocked and happy young man into a hug it took him a few seconds to return it. They held each other for a few minutes then as he pulled away out of impulse she kissed him on the lips quickly. Then realizing what she did, turned crimson, Lloyd was blushing slightly as well "Sorry," she managed.

He smiled "No your not," he replied. She looked at him and smiled, her blush fading away. Then he began to lean forward, cautiously until she nodded and raised her head to meet his, it felt like eternity before their lips touched. It was near bliss for both of them, and even though it lasted more than a minute, both were sad when it ended. Once it did Sheena fell back on the bed and laughed softly to herself, soon Lloyd was laughing too and for the next ten minutes that was all they could do, until they were out of breath.

Sheena then pushed herself back up and leaned against Lloyd, who was looking out the window at the sun, which was still a ways from the horizon, he looked down at Sheena "We need to do something, I'll go crazy if we don't."

Sheena looked up at him "What's on your mind?"

Lloyd sighed then after a moment of silence said "How much energy do you have?"

She shrugged "Enough."

"Would you mind a walk?"

She shook her head "Not at all."

He stood up and stretched then offered a hand "Shall we?"

She took it, smiling "We shall."

They walked out into the hall together, hand in hand, the quickly found their way back to the Great Hall and made their way out to the city. The sun was still sinking lower but they walked through the city for a few hours until the sun was just a half circle on the horizon. They made it back to the palace just as the sun disappeared under the horizon and the light was starting to fade. They saw Zelos and talked to him for a few minutes but because of what Lloyd had told Sheena about the knight, they didn't say they were a couple. They walked back to the rooms as slowly as they could letting the sky become darker. When they reached the rooms Sheena opened the door to hers and looked back at Lloyd for a second who was standing behind her, scratching his head nervously, finally he said "C-Could I st-stay with you?"

She smiled widely and nodded "Of course, I thought you'd never ask." She quickly pulled him inside. Her room was slightly larger but overall it looked the same, Sheena went into the smaller side room and when she disappeared from sight he quickly undid all the buttons on his shirt and quickly removed that and his undershirt and quickly lay down on the bed, he closed his eyes slowly and then when he felt pressure on the bed next to him he opened his eyes and turned to see Sheena, she was only in her bra and panties.

He blushed and stared back at the ceiling before saying "You sure it's okay Sheena?"

She giggled softly and turned his face towards hers "You and I are going to be traveling together, just us. So I think it's okay, you should get used it." He laughed softly and leaned into kiss her shortly, she smiled as he pulled away and moved closer to him pressing her body against his, he wrapped an arm around her and that is how they fell asleep that night.

The next morning the sun was their wake up call and Lloyd was the first one awake, he awoke to see Sheena's face right next to his, a small smile adorning her features. Hoping not to wake her he sat up slowly and hung his feet over the side of the bed. As he stood up and stretched he heard the bed springs creaking and looked to see Sheena just sitting up, she yawned then turned and smiled at him "Good morning."

He smiled "Best morning in a long time." She giggled and blushed lightly then pushed herself out of bed and walked into the other room to get dressed. Lloyd shook out his shirt trying to get any dust that he could off of it, then when he was satisfied he sung his arms into the sleeves and buttoned up the many buttons on the front, then lastly stuck the two exspheres through the holes he had cut into his gloves. As he belted on his swords Sheena came walking out, back in her normal indigo kimono with the dull pink ribbon tied on the back he looked at her for a second and then said "You think you can do some traveling yet?"

She nodded excitedly "I think I was cooped up her for too long about two days ago. Let's see if we can't get out of here."

Lloyd nodded "My thoughts exactly." They both gathered what little items they had and moved at a leisurely pace down to where the healer's quarters were.

The old man answered the door quickly "What can I do for you two?" he said, scratching at his white beard.

Sheena answered quickly "I've been cooped up too long, I'd like to ask if you could check me over once more and then I'd be able to leave."

The healer raised an eyebrow then said "Well I can tell you won't leave until I do, so sure, go ahead and lay down on the be." Sheena moved over and lay out on the bed, resting her arms at her side and the healer slowly began to move his staff over her keeping a hand on his chin, obviously in deep thought. After a minute he looked over at Lloyd who was leaning against a wall "Where are both of you going after this?"

Lloyd stood up straight now "We both have some family loose ends to tie up then…I don't know."

The healer nodded "I see," he then smiled to himself "You two do make a nice couple."

Lloyd was shocked for a second then recovered "Uh, we're not-

The healer cut him off, laughing softly "Don't try it, I'm old enough, you two are pretty obvious." When he looked back at Sheena her cheeks were a dark shade of crimson, he laughed again "Don't worry your secret is safe with me." Sheena nodded, afraid to speak and Lloyd relaxed again. The healer held onto his staff for a few more minutes then moved it away and nodded "You look fine," he said to Sheena "But you shouldn't do anything too strenuous for about the next week, and I am completely serious about that, other than that, you have my permission to leave, and I will tell the king."

Sheena sat up and went to join Lloyd then before they left Lloyd went up to the old man and said "Thank you so much for everything you have done for us while we have been here."

The old man gave him a warm smiled "No thanks is necessary, it is what I do."

Lloyd smiled back "Well still thanks." The healer nodded and Lloyd said good-bye then rejoined Sheena and they both quickly made their way back to the great hall and outside the palace. The city was just starting to get busy as they walked through the streets. They were both to get back to their homes to finally finish things up. When they made it to the gates Lloyd asked one of the guards "Where did you store the Rheiards, there should be one left?"

The guard nodded "There is, we didn't want to leave them right outside the gates so we moved them to the stables, the last one is inside." The guard gave them basic directions and the two found the large warehouse like building in a few minutes. Inside they quickly found the last Rheiard and after Lloyd switched it on to hover slightly off the ground they pushed it outside the building and put what little other possessions they had into the small storage spots on the side.

Lloyd climbed onto it first "To Mizuho," he said as he patted the back seat. She quickly jumped on the back and wrapped her arms around his waste and kissed him on the cheek. A second later they were in the air.

They flew across the ocean looking at the Great Tethe'alla Bridge, talking as they went. They flew over Sybak and the dense grey-green of the Gaoroachia Forest on the other side, hidden in the shadow of the mountains sat Mizuho. Sheena looked nostalgic as they flew down towards it. Lloyd landed the Rheiard on the very edge of the grove of trees that surrounded the village and spread an arm out "This is your business not _ours_, I'll wait." Sheena nodded and walked into the trees.

When she came in sight of the village she could see that Tiga, her grandfather, Orochi and several other villagers.

When she walked into the village Orochi and two other ninjas came running up to her "Sheena your back!" one said excitement and relief evident in his voice.

She grinned and laughed "Yes but not for long, I have another journey waiting for me, but don't worry, I will be back!"

Orochi spoke up softly then "And for when Kuchinawa comes back as well."

She turned and gave him a sad smile "Yeah," then she turned back to the others "Alright everyone, while I am gone I will leave Tiga in charge…with your permission of course grandpa," she said looking at the old man, who nodded and gave her a loving smile. She grinned then and turned to the others "Everyone while I'm gone, I want you all to revive the Igaguri Style and we can make this a ninja clan to be proud of." To her surprise there was actually a bit of cheering when she finished, then she hugged her grandfather and Orochi and waved good-bye to Tiga and the others, before disappearing back into the forest.

Lloyd was waiting by the Rheiard and she quickly jumped on the back, he turned to her and said "Two more stops," then they were airborne once more. The trip was a short one flying over the mountains to where the ruins of the Tower of Salvation stood. Lloyd set the Rheiard down right outside the valley then while Sheena waited he walked into the valley, disappearing from sight. As he got close he saw who he hoped he would, Kratos stood in front of the light staircase, looking up at him solemnly. He smiled to himself then walked down to where the angelic warrior stood.

When he got close they stood in silence for several minutes before Lloyd finally said "Are you really going to Derris-Kharlan?"

Kratos nodded slowly then spoke in his deep, penetrating voice "If an elf of Cruxis remains here the other half-elves will have no place to live. As a surviving member of Cruxis I must bear the responsibility for what has happened."

Lloyd shrugged then said "I'm going to collect all the exspheres remaining in the land."

Kratos followed this up "And I will discard all of the Cruxis' exspheres into space, I've dragged you into this until the very end."

Lloyd nodded "its okay…"

Kratos then said in a slow voice "It's time for me to go. Please use that sword to send us to Derris-Kharlan."

Lloyd nodded and as he drew out his two swords and let them combine into the Eternal Sword he said, happiness evident in his voice "Good-bye…dad!"

Then the light appeared behind Kratos and he disappeared slowly, then when he was gone Lloyd heard his voice echoing from somewhere "Don't die before I do Lloyd…my son," then he heard no more. The Eternal Sword returned to the two swords and he walked away. He quickly returned to the Rheiard and as he climbed onto it said to Sheena "Now we have to find Iselia."

Sheena laughed softly "Just look for it where it would be in Sylvarant."

Lloyd nodded "You're probably right," then kicked off again. When they flew over the icy part of the waters in the northern part of Tethe'alla they kept going, and it quickly warmed up. Soon he saw a deserted continent and as they got close to it he saw the sprawling oasis of Triet. He sighed happily "Home," he said to himself, and Sheena kissed him on the cheek. In the next few minutes they could see Iselia and the forest. They flew over the town then over the forest until they spotted the large house sitting in the middle. Lloyd landed the Rheiard on the other side of the log bridge and they both walked up to the door.

Dirk answered a few seconds after Lloyd knocked. He smiled when he saw him "Lloyd, it has been awhile, what you need?"

Lloyd smiled sadly "I need to talk to mom; I'd like to have you with me." Dirk nodded slowly and without another word followed as Lloyd walked to his mother's grave. Sheena stayed behind knowing it wasn't her place. Lloyd stood in front of the grave for a long time before finally speaking "Mom, dad…left. That was okay right? For me to let him go…it was okay right?"

Dirk spoke up after a short pause "You wanted to go with him didn't you?"

Lloyd shook his head and turned around to his foster father "No I have my own path to follow and dad has his. And besides I have a dad here already."

Dirk nodded and said "I see, then I won't say anymore."

Lloyd turned and drew out Kratos' sword and laid it on the stone, "Mom I'll leave dad's sword here beside you," then he turned to Dirk and shook his hand "Well, I'm off!" He walked slowly back to Sheena who leaned up and kissed him softly on the lips. He smiled and wrapped an arm around her waist they walked back to the Rheiard. They climbed on and as Lloyd started to raise it up he looked back at his new lover and said "Now our real journey begins."

A/N: And we are now officially on hiatus, I am probably going to play the second game and then start writing again and go from there, probably without the new characters from ToS2 though just the same regulars, and some of my own creation. That's all for now, watch for my other stories, they will appear soon. I hope.


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